Denis Cosgrove
Encyclopedia
Denis E. Cosgrove was an Alexander von Humboldt
Professor
of Geography
at the University of California, Los Angeles
. His father was a bank clerk and, ironically enough, as a child his school made him stop taking geography because they told his mother it was a girls subject and that he must do Greek and Latin instead to stay in the "A" stream. He went to school in Oxford and the University of Toronto. He was a cultural geographer
, whose work focused upon the concepts of landscape
and representations
. He was a leading proponent of the 'new cultural geography' which encouraged a focus upon the complex interconnections between the many different aspects of landscapes and the world.
Denis was the second eldest of six children and was raised in a very catholic family. He was married twice and had two daughters and one son.
and cultural geography
, especially in Western Europe since the fifteenth century, to a broader concern with the role of spatial images and representations in the making and communicating of knowledge. His work included how visual images have been used in history to shape geographical imaginations and in connection between geography as a formal discipline, imaginative expressions of geographical knowledge and experience in the visual arts (including cartography
).
This broad concern was pursued through a series of focussed studies: of landscape transformation, design and images in sixteenth-century Venice
and north Italy, of landscape writings by authors such as John Ruskin
, of landscape, space and performance in twentieth century Rome
, of cosmography
in early modern Europe (1450–1650), and of the history of Western imaginings of the globe and whole earth. He has also written extensively on theory in cultural geography and edited for six years the journal Ecumene which publishes cross-disciplinary work on environment, culture and meaning.
Within his cultural research, Cosgrove differentiated between dominant cultures and alternative cultures. The dominant culture has the most influence in shaping a landscape. Most of what you see, he claimed, is likely to be a product of the dominant culture in a region. However, one is also likely to see evidence of alternative, or subcultures in the landscape. Within the category of alternative culture, Cosgrove differentiated between residual cultures (historic cultures that have disappeared or are in the process of fading away), emergent cultures (those that are just now appearing), and excluded cultures (those that are actively or passively excluded by the dominant culture).
Cosgrove died following complications after cancer surgery in 2008.
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
at the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
. His father was a bank clerk and, ironically enough, as a child his school made him stop taking geography because they told his mother it was a girls subject and that he must do Greek and Latin instead to stay in the "A" stream. He went to school in Oxford and the University of Toronto. He was a cultural geographer
Cultural geography
Cultural geography is a sub-field within human geography. Cultural geography is the study of cultural products and norms and their variations across and relations to spaces and places...
, whose work focused upon the concepts of landscape
Landscape
Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...
and representations
Representations
Representations is an interdisciplinary journal in the humanities published quarterly by the University of California Press. The journals was established in 1983 and is the founding publication of the New Historicism movement of the 1980s. It covers topics including literary, historical, and...
. He was a leading proponent of the 'new cultural geography' which encouraged a focus upon the complex interconnections between the many different aspects of landscapes and the world.
Denis was the second eldest of six children and was raised in a very catholic family. He was married twice and had two daughters and one son.
Research
Cosgrove's research interests evolved from a focus on the meanings of landscape in humanHuman geography
Human geography is one of the two major sub-fields of the discipline of geography. Human geography is the study of the world, its people, communities, and cultures. Human geography differs from physical geography mainly in that it has a greater focus on studying human activities and is more...
and cultural geography
Cultural geography
Cultural geography is a sub-field within human geography. Cultural geography is the study of cultural products and norms and their variations across and relations to spaces and places...
, especially in Western Europe since the fifteenth century, to a broader concern with the role of spatial images and representations in the making and communicating of knowledge. His work included how visual images have been used in history to shape geographical imaginations and in connection between geography as a formal discipline, imaginative expressions of geographical knowledge and experience in the visual arts (including cartography
Cartography
Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.The fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to:*Set the map's...
).
This broad concern was pursued through a series of focussed studies: of landscape transformation, design and images in sixteenth-century Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
and north Italy, of landscape writings by authors such as John Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
, of landscape, space and performance in twentieth century Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, of cosmography
Cosmography
Cosmography is the science that maps the general features of the universe, describing both heaven and Earth...
in early modern Europe (1450–1650), and of the history of Western imaginings of the globe and whole earth. He has also written extensively on theory in cultural geography and edited for six years the journal Ecumene which publishes cross-disciplinary work on environment, culture and meaning.
Within his cultural research, Cosgrove differentiated between dominant cultures and alternative cultures. The dominant culture has the most influence in shaping a landscape. Most of what you see, he claimed, is likely to be a product of the dominant culture in a region. However, one is also likely to see evidence of alternative, or subcultures in the landscape. Within the category of alternative culture, Cosgrove differentiated between residual cultures (historic cultures that have disappeared or are in the process of fading away), emergent cultures (those that are just now appearing), and excluded cultures (those that are actively or passively excluded by the dominant culture).
Cosgrove died following complications after cancer surgery in 2008.
External links
1988
- [edited with Stephen Daniels] The Iconography of Landscape: Essays on the Symbolic Representation, Design and Use of Past Environments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
1990
- [with Geoffrey Petts] Water Engineering and Landscape: Water Control and Landscape Transformation in the Modern Period 192 pp. London: Belhaven.
1993
- The Palladian landscape: geographical change and its cultural representations in sixteenth century Italy 287 pp. Leicester University Press/Pennsylvanian State U.P., 1993 [in June 2006 being translated into Italian by Cierre, Verona]
1997
- "Cultural Landscapes" in T.Unwin ed. Europe: a modern geography, Longman, London, 1997, 65-81.
1998
- Social formation and Symbolic Landscape (2nd edition with additional introductory chapter), Wisconsin Univ. Press, 1998
- "Urban rhetoric and embodied identities: city, nation and empire at the Vittorio Emanuele II monument in Rome 1870-1945" (with D. Atkinson) Annals, Association of American Geographers, 88, 1, 1998, 28-49.
1999
- "Airport/Landscape" in J. Corner (ed.) Recovering Landscape Princeton Architectural Press, Princeton NJ, 1999, 221-232 (with paintings by Adrian Hemming)
- "Empire in modern Rome: shaping and remembering an imperial city" (with D.Atkinson and A.Notaro), in F.Driver & D.Gilbert (eds.) Imperial Cities: landscape, display, identity. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1999, 40-63.
- "La geographie culturelle et la signification du millenaire" Geographie et Cultures, 31, 1999, 49-64.
- "Liminal geometry and elemental landscape: construction and representation" in J. Corner (ed.) Recovering Landscape Princeton Architectural Press, Princeton NJ, 1999, 103-120.
- Mappings (editor) 311 pp. Reaktion Books, London, 1999
2000
- "Global illumination and enlightenment in the geographies of Vincenzo Coronelli and Athanasius Kircher" in C.Withers & D.Livingstone eds. Enlightenment Geographies, Chicago University Press, Chicago, 2000, 33-66.
- "Millennial geographics" (with L.Martins) Annals, Association of American Geographers 90. 1, 2000
2001
- Apollo's Eye: a cartographic genealogy of the Earth in the Western Imagination Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore, MD, 2001.
2006
- "Carto-City." In Else/Where: Mapping - New Cartographies of Networks and Territories, ed. Janet Abrams and Peter Hall, 148-157. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Design Institute.
2007
- "Images of Renaissance Cosmography, 1450-1650." In Cartography in the European Renaissance, ed. David Woodward, 55-98. Vol. 3 of The History of Cartography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- "Mapping the World." In Maps: Finding Our Place in the World, ed. James R. Akerman and Robert W. Karrow, Jr., 65-115. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.