About this event
The Spaces of Bookselling: Stores, Streets, and Pages
Drawing on my recent book on bookstore spaces, this talk will explore the “monumental bookstore” as both a physical type and a symbolic ideal. Depicted in online listicles, Instagram posts, and news articles, monumental bookstores, like the well-known Ateneo Grand Splendid in Buenos Aires or Rizzoli’s in New York City, loom large on their streets and in the collective imagination, asserting both physical and symbolic prominence. I will discuss the dynamics of monumentality and its implications for understanding the social and cultural roles of the bookstore. We’ll look both at historical examples of theses stores as well as the ways that contemporary social and popular media shape understanding and experiences of the monumental bookstore. Considered both in physical and digital space, monumentality transforms the bookstore itself into an aesthetic commodity and a symbolic ideal of aspirational values centered around the book and community.
Location: LIB-019 (Lecture Hall, Ceremonial Entrance)
