Constructing the city : spatializing the real and imagined Havana in visual culture, (1933-2010)

Whilst images of the city of Havana arewell documented worldwide, the actual state of the city's image is one which has been steadily misconstrued and idealized in visual culture over the course of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. My doctoral research project engages in exploring alternative ways of reading Havana as both a construct, and as a cultural product, ultimately aiming to provide an understanding of how and why we see the city as we do. By examining spatial representations of the city on a number of levels (geopolitical and metaphorical) this thesis endeavours to explain how image-makers and cultural producers present the city, through photography, material culture and documentary film, whilst also surveying the processes and effects which manifest these visual constructs. The aim of this thesis is to consider these different modes of representing Havana, by challenging the representation of various spaces, and through interrogating the different forces which affect these spatialities.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo