A Manual of Hinges and a Musing on Gruffalo

Authors

  • Angharad Saunders Independent Researcher / UCEM

Keywords:

Spatial hinge, children's literature, walking, reading

Abstract

A hinge is a hinge, so I thought, until I began to open and close a few. There are, it turns out, many different types of hinge. The most common is a butt hinge. Look at most doors and this is what you will see: two matching leaves, one on the door and one on the door jamb. This though, is only the start. For there are corner hinges, lift-off hinges, continuous hinges, off-set hinges, strap hinges, concealed hinges (to name but a few) and then there are those designed for the interior, the exterior, for fine furniture, for heavy-duty work and those for everyday use. Irrespective of design, in essence all hinges work in the same way and have the same purpose. They are moveable joints, connecting two objects, and are intended to allow limited rotation between these two objects. In so doing, they connect and they separate; they hold something close and something at a distance. We have to push (or pull) on the door, to work the hinge and reveal the world hidden behind it.   

Author Biography

Angharad Saunders, Independent Researcher / UCEM

Senior Lecturer in Human Geography

References

Hones, S. (2008) ‘Text As It Happens: Literary Geography.’ Geography Compass, 2(5), pp. 1301-1317.

Lovell, J. (2023) ‘Opening Spatial Hinges with Mindful Writing Practice: negotiating Philip Pullman’s Secret Commonwealth.’ Cultural Geographies, 30 (2), pp. 279-298.

McLaughlin, D. (2016) ‘The Game’s Afoot: Walking as Practice in Sherlockian Literary Geographies.’ Literary Geographies, 2(2), pp. 144-163.

Saunders, A. (2020) ‘Walking with Goats and Gruffalo.’ Literary Geographies, 6(2), pp. 191-194.

Thurgill, J. (2021) ‘Literary Geography and the Spatial Hinge.’ Literary Geographies, 7(2), pp. 152-156.

Thurgill, J and Lovell, J. (2019) ‘Expanding Worlds: Places and Collaboration in (and after) the ‘Text-as-Spatial-Event’.’ Literary Geographies, 5(1), pp. 16-20.

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Published

2023-08-28

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2023)

Section

Thinking Space

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