No Fixed Abode – Ethnofiction (French List) - Hardcover

Auge, Marc

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0857420968 ISBN 13: 9780857420961

Publisher: Seagull Books, 2013

Synopsis

In recent years, social workers have raised concern about the appearance of a new category among the working poor. Even among the employed, there are people so overburdened by the cost of living and so under compensated that they cannot afford a place to sleep. According to the Coalition for the Homeless, contrary to popular opinion, forty-four percent of the homeless in developed nations actually have jobs. In "No Fixed Abode", Marc Auge's pathbreaking fictional ethnography, a man named Henri narrates his strange existence on the margins of Paris. By day he walks the streets, lingers in conversation with the local shopkeepers, and sits writing in cafes, but at night he takes shelter in an abandoned house. From here, we see a progressive erosion of Henri's identity, a loss of bearings, and a slow degeneration of his ability to relate to others. But then he meets the artist Dominique, whose willingness to share her life with him raises questions about who he has become and what a person needs in order to be a part of society. This is a book about how we live in geographical space and how work and patterns of domicile affect our status and our inner being. Despite the apparent simplicity of the fictional premise, Auge's book asks serious questions about the nature of our culture.

About this title

Review:

"With No Fixed Abode, anthropologist Marc Augé uses the form of the novel to explore the emergence of a new class of poor: those who work, but are left homeless, unable to afford rent. . . . In this book, Augé explores the need for place, writing that without this point of reference, man loses his identity. And this is especially easy when, like Augé's hero, we find ourselves facing the vertigo of absolute isolation. A bitter and chilling story of the present day."--from Le Figaro

About the Author:

Marc Auge is one of France's most eminent anthropologists. He is best-known in the English-speaking world for Non-Places: An Introduction to Supermodernity. Chris Turner is a writer and translator who lives in Birmingham, England.

About this edition

• Publisher: Seagull Books
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0857420968
• ISBN 13: 9780857420961
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 96