The anthology Narrating and Constructing the Beach: An Interdisciplinary Approach, edited by Carina Breidenbach et al., is a comparative study comprising five sections that include a collection of twenty scholarly essays and poems. The book is the result of scholarly presentations that took place at the interdisciplinary conference “Narrating and Constructing the Beach” in June of 2018 at the Amerika-Haus in Munich, Germany. The interest in the notions and meanings of the beach is not new, however. Since the 2015 surge of migration and the subsequent refugee crisis in Europe, many scholars have engaged in studying the beach not as a place of leisure but of a constant and changing sociocultural struggle due to the increase in migration, construction, global warming, environmental pollution, swimwear controversies, and other social and cultural “hot topic” issues. The book offers an in-depth look at the complexity of the beach in various geographical and historical contexts and its multicultural construction in various genres ranging from literature, film, photography, theatre, music, and art in both English and German.The introduction of the book attempts to dissect the semantics of the beach and its meanings and establishes that it is difficult to formulate a single definition of the word; the beach therefore becomes a complex concept full of additional layers of meanings. For many scholars and artists it is a liminal place, a space of transition. The beach itself becomes a place of both order and freedom, regulation and chaos, creation and destruction, utopia and dystopia, attraction and repulsion. The liminality is the transient quality and the reason it is hard to define the beach as a concept, and that is the reason why it is a space where multiple social and cultural encounters occur and where gender, race, sexuality, class, and religion lines are often blurred. The collection of scholarly essays shows that there is no set space when it comes to the construction of the beach; it is indeed built upon a multitude of experiences through various artistic and cultural means of production. The scholars in this volume attempt to reveal that the perceptions or “the poetics” of the beach are always changing due to different voices, experiences, and perspectives.The introduction of the book also references literary theory, specifically the importance of postcolonial readings of the beach, where the beach becomes a place of colonial (and postcolonial) encounters between the explorers and the locals, and the fantasy of the exotic, where there is not only a direct contact with the cultural/colonial Other but also a power self trying to establish a dominion over the colonized Other. Many works discussed show the beach is not a vacation space but a violent marketplace that perpetuates capitalism and its values.The anthology thematically consists of five main sections. The first one, “Arrivals and Departures,” deals with the negative experiences of the beach linked with the refugee crisis and experiences with death, loss, and degradation, as the beach is not a haven but a state of “perpetual imprisonment”—without the chance of leaving. This first section compares two modernist texts and four films where the characters find themselves trapped, displaced, and lost. The second section, “Drawing and Crossing Lines,” focuses on the beach as a space and its violent role when it comes to the social hierarchy. The authors examine the beach’s liminality in a variety of texts via the lens of class, sexuality, age, and race. The third section, “Building Structures and Assembling Elements,” examines various building and architectural processes on the beach, from sandcastles to beach houses, hotels, and restaurants, looking at the cultural and material construction of the beach in different geographical areas. The fourth section, “Bodies in Time: Littoral Rhythms of Death and Desire,” looks at the temporal quality of the beach and explores its dimensions in literature, film, and music in characters’ perception of life, death, and memory. The fifth section, “Social and Material Transformations,” studies the material transformation of the beach and its consequential social transformation in works where the beach is the catalyst of cultural, historical, and political changes as well as ecological and social ones. The authors in this fifth section also look at the concept of the “beach body” and its semiotics in a variety of contexts. The conclusion of the book reiterates some themes and topics that have already been discussed in other sections, revisiting the beach landscape of Kailua and ending with a poetry of Mark Bartley.It is also worth noting that the perception of the beach today is affected by tourism and its construction of the beach. On one hand, it has an appeal as a place of leisure and escape from one’s daily routine; on the other hand, it is seen as a place of destruction, chaos, and economic dependence. Since changes to the coastal landscape have started in the eighteenth century and continue today, the seaside has been transformed, and the beach has become a place of social and cultural change. Migration, urbanization, commercialization, tourism—all add to the ongoing interest in the beach. Despite the pollution and damage done by tourism, the beach is still seen today as a utopian refuge, a paradise outside of the quotidian and mundane, a space where social structures do not matter and self-changes can occur, and as a result, many films and books portray the beach in such a light. However, many of the beaches become violent and dangerous places where power struggles and even death can take place. Recently, more attention has been placed on the usage of the natural elements of the beaches’ ecosystems (primarily sand) and how this element is exploited by the capitalist economy. Construction is affecting the geological and geographical properties of the beach along with the animal and plant habitats; it is also affecting humans as two-thirds of the world population lives no more than 300 km from the ocean. Many artistic works highlight the beach having the quality of temporality and in many works the beach symbolizes a turn of the events or a drastic change in the lives of the characters. The micro-time of the surf and the waves’ movement create a sensory view of the beach, and the sense of time often disappears in many artistic works and texts.The anthology challenges preconceived notions about the concept of the beach, claiming that in fact the beach is a complex cultural phenomenon, constantly adapting, changing, and transforming itself. Scholars and researchers of literary theory, literature, film, photography, and art will find this book useful, engaging, and beneficial as the authors represented in the collection reveal the complexity and diversity of the perspectives of the beach. The book offers an in-depth analysis of beach representation in many artistic works and is an invaluable resource to both scholars and non-scholars alike.
Irina Strout (Sun,) studied this question.