Thinking in space
| Date | 03 April 2018 |
| Pages | 79-84 |
| Published date | 03 April 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/CC-08-2017-0038 |
| Author | Laura Troiano |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Collection building & management |
Thinking in space
Laura Troiano
Clement A. Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience, Rutgers,
The State University of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey, USA
Abstract
Purpose –This paper is an exploration of the potential impact of narrative writing and creative non-fiction on historical scholarship. Framed by the
question of where a manuscript would be shelved in the library, this paper aims to survey the role of space, physical and metaphorical, in how we
categorize, curate, cultivate and present narrative scholarship.
Design/methodology/approach –Using primary source material related to Newark stadium building and a broad-range scholarship concerning
space, the author will place them in conversation with historian John Demos’autobiographical narrative writing style.
Findings –The author hopes this paper furthers the conversation on the impact of narrative on scholarly writing and literacy.
Originality/value –By advancing this conversation, the author’s hope is that scholars will expand the possibilities of topics, sources, analysis,
narrative styles and presentation of the information they both find and produce.
Keywords Writing, Narrative, Creative non-fiction, Interdisciplinary, Space, Stadiums
Paper type Research paper
I just finished my dissertation. I am still trying to figure out
what it is, so that I can figure out what kind of book manuscript
I want it to be. I havemany questions to answer about my work,
but there is one thing about my scholarshipthat I am sure of: it
is a narrative grounded in space. My work is about the “whys”
and “hows”a city (in this case Newark, NJ) –from its mayors
and city government officials, to its business leaders, to its
residents, for over a century –created narratives about its
baseball stadiums. I use these narratives to better understand
the forces that influenced the city’s development throughout
the twentieth century. I do this in large part by looking at the
spaces these stadiums occupy. There is the literal space, from
the turnstiles to the outfield bleachers, to the acres within the
stadium’s borders andthen beyond them to the neighborhoods
they reside in. Even still thereis more space to explore. Equally
important is the metaphoricalspace. The spaces these stadiums
occupy in civic and nostalgic memories. As the literal and
metaphorical converge,a version of the past emerges. But what
it is about is not what it is. I hope the answer to that questionis
found on a library shelf.
Sometimes you walk directly to the book you are after, but
more often the books thatsandwich your original target are just
as or even more useful. Thinking in linear time hasnever been
my strong suit; I work best backwards.So, I imagine (gleefully)
my completed, published manuscript shelved for the first time
at the library. At first, I think it will be placed alongside the
other American urbanhistories that span the twentieth century.
But, it could also be in a section about baseball or baseball
stadiums or sportsstadiums generally. I write about stadiums as
physical structures. Maybe it should be housedin architecture.
Then again, is it a cultural historyor social history monograph?
Did I write a local history?This seems most likely. But once the
librarian opens thebook and sees that I write with vignettes and
portraits will that change its location? What shelf houses the
books predicated on the vastness of space? I am obviously ill-
equipped without the tools of the librarian. Maybe a way into
this conversation is through the advice I was given, “when
working on a manuscript choose a model and borrow heavily
from it”. I head tothe shelf my model book landed on.
I chose my model long before I started a doctoral program.
Working on my master’s degree, I was introducedto the loosely
defined field of “creative non-fiction”.Within this field I found
historians who define themselves as both scholars and writers.
They care as much about their prose as they do about their
analysis, and the methods of their analysisare as varied as their
prose. They are not willing tocompromise either for the other.
The writing form is inextricably linked to the content of the
scholarship. My entry into this world was the first line of John
Demos’The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early
America,“Mostof all, I wanted to write a story”. By the time my
eyes reached the period, I knew not that I was interested in
creative non-fiction. I knew that the only historian I could be
was one whose workwould be categorized as such.
For over a decade, William and Mary Quarterly and The
Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture at
the College of William & Mary have sponsored an annual
workshop series which they describe as “designed to identify
and encourage new trends in our understanding of the history
and culture of early North America”. In 2008, the selected
topic was “Writing Early American History”and John Demos
was the keynote speaker. In his lecture Demos describes the
writing process for The UnredeemedCaptive: A Family Story from
Early America. True to its title,it is a family story. The narrative
follows Puritan minster John Williams and his family who in
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on
Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/2514-9326.htm
Collection and Curation
37/2 (2018) 79–84
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 2514-9326]
[DOI 10.1108/CC-08-2017-0038]
Received 21 August 2017
Revised 21 August 2017
Accepted 24 September 2017
79
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