Archaeological Landscapes as Literary Landscapes

between Text, the Senses and Aesthetics

Abstract

Rather than being a self-evident concept/entity, the existence of Landscapes has to be theorised instead of assumed as an a priori category. In one unifying concept, Landscape becomes the common ground needed to cross disciplinary areas, but does not constitute a self-evident reality or concept. Hence, an inquiry into Literary Landscapes and an archaeological approach to them needs both the conceptual bases offered by Philosophy and the mechanisms of engagement offered by Landscape Archaeology. Conceptually speaking, Literary Landscapes offer some difficulties in their ontological definition. There is also no difference between the simulated and the real in read descriptions, which further invalidates its existence as such. To counter these ideas and affirm the existence of Literary Landscapes we turn to a constellation of Deleuzian concepts in their conjoined potential: immanence, virtuality and the power of the false. This will come to show that not only do Literary Landscapes exist but that there is also a significant overlap between them and the archaeological ones, rendering the former as eligible for archaeological deconstruction.