The Abandoned Lighthouse

The Liminal Experience of Ruins

Authors

  • Isla Whateley University of Edinburgh

Keywords:

ruins, liminality, cities, affect, modernity

Abstract

Summary: Ruins can play a particularly poignant role in modern capitalist society, and exist in a liminal, marginal state between the past and the future. Western Harbour Lighthouse in Leith, Edinburgh is an example of this kind of ruin, separated from the rest of the city by a physical and metaphorical boundary. Ruins also have affective presence, inciting a particular feeling in those who enter. This essay explores how the liminal status of the Lighthouse disrupts the usual ‘order’ of the modern city.

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Published

20-Jun-2018

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2018): Summer 2018

Section

Academic Essays

License

Creative Commons License
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How to Cite

The Abandoned Lighthouse: The Liminal Experience of Ruins. (2018). re:Think - a Journal of Creative Ethnography, 1(1), 11-15. https://journals.ed.ac.uk/rethink/article/view/2650