Macau’s Heterotopias: Ruins of St. Paul’s as a Spatial and Temporal Disruption

Marta Wieczorek, Zayed University

ORCID Identifiers

0000-0002-4709-9429

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology

Publication Date

8-8-2019

Abstract

© 2019, © 2019 The Australian National University. This article explores and decodes the social experiences of the ruins of St. Paul’s in Macau. The depictions of St. Paul’s as a disruptive social space are elucidated by the concepts of heterotopia, palimpsest and liminality. As a palimpsest, Macau’s ruins comprise a variety of concealed and superimposed semantic layers. One can read the ruins and decipher these semantic tiers. The reading of buildings as palimpsests recognises the paradoxical combination of their durable and transitory nature. St. Paul’s ruins encompass several stratified discourses such as cultural, historical, aesthetic. All of them are deciphered in their multivalent configurations, revealing their overarching heterotopic quality. This article aims to display St. Paul’s ruins as a culturally meaningful urban space of otherness within the ambivalent spatial realm of Macau while unfolding its disruptive nature.

ISSN

1444-2213

Publisher

Routledge

Volume

20

Issue

4

First Page

312

Last Page

327

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Keywords

Heterotopia, Liminality, Macau, Palimpsest, Ruins of St. Paul’s

Scopus ID

85068523850

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

Link to Full Text

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