Writing Architecture: Space and Structure in Edith Wharton

Author

Yael Hameiri Sainsaux, CUNY Graduate CenterFollow

Date of Degree

6-2025

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Comparative Literature

Advisor

André Aciman

Committee Members

André Aciman

Peter Hitchcock

Giancarlo Lombardi

Subject Categories

Architectural History and Criticism | Comparative Literature | Other Architecture

Keywords

Spatial poetics, Architectural phenomenology, Transitional space, Literary architecture, Intimacy, Transdisciplinary theory

Abstract

For Edith Wharton, art and architecture do not exist as isolated entities: instead, they serve as dynamic fields wherein individual and cultural experiences, past traditions, and evolving ideas converge, creating meaning that transcends materiality. A correlation between Wharton’s treatises and her literary corpus navigates and challenges architectural theory and spatial analysis. Critically unfolding Wharton’s call for “observation detached from tradition,” where architecture “must be deconventionalized” and “considered in relation to… life” (Italian Backgrounds, 1905), opens the door to new disciplinary foundations. Wharton’s investigation of intimacy—an enduring theme throughout her work—invites exploration of the interplay between the constructed environment and the inner self. Tracing the treatment of private space in Wharton’s work reveals inherently political dimensions of social life emerging from the domestic sphere, where intimacy becomes a contingent element of space shaped by lived experience, memory, and context. The dissertation demonstrates Wharton’s literary insight into transitional space and movement between private and public as it affects her characters, thus establishing a conception of civic space in relation to individuals. It mobilizes literary theory to analyze affective and situational space, framing the dialectic between self and environment as fundamental to the architectural question. This transdisciplinary lens offers a humanistic framework, placing Wharton’s concept of space as “an event in the history of a soul” (The Writing of Fiction, 1925) at its center.

A renewed spatial poetics contributes to both Wharton scholarship and architectural discourse. Thus, the study engages in spatial readings of literary texts where space itself is both a narrative element and a reflection of its structure. Conceptual grounds for interpreting how structure and environment frame human experience are first established in Wharton’s Ethan Frome (1911). The investigation then delves into Wharton’s architectural triad—structures, gardens, and landscapes—demonstrating her anticipation of later theories of site-specificity and environmental contextualism. A constellation of architectural concepts forms a complex spatial syntax that deepens the interpretation of her fiction, detailing Wharton’s critical approach to the adaptation and translation of spatial forms and their subjective experience. Summer (1917) in particular uses concrete physical spaces for more than just symbolic meanings, manifesting in them abstract psychological and social conditions. This analysis defines displaced intimacy, the role of civic territories, and the emergence of transitional spaces—both physical and psychological—where Wharton’s authorial voice opens a literary path into architectural phenomenology.

Recommended Citation

Sainsaux, Yael Hameiri, "Writing Architecture: Space and Structure in Edith Wharton" (2025). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6255