@article {Vannette249, author = {Charles M. Vannette}, title = {A Cartography of Cognition: Urban Sketches by Robert Walser}, volume = {111}, number = {2}, pages = {249--268}, year = {2019}, doi = {10.3368/m.111.2.249}, publisher = {University of Wisconsin Press}, abstract = {This article applies cognitive theories from phenomenological psychiatry in a reading of two of Robert Walser{\textquoteright}s Berlin stories; {\textquotedblleft}Guten Tag, Riesin!{\textquotedblright} and {\textquotedblleft}Der Park.{\textquotedblright} Walser{\textquoteright}s fl{\^a}neurs narrate a city whose topography is defined by distanced, clich{\'e}d, and two-dimensional images, in which an emphasis on the singularity of observed objects dissolves the context of the city street. This process of decontextualization creates a new city space that lacks the restrictions of distance or direction. The narrators{\textquoteright} unique mode of observation produces a curiously denaturalized and undefined city, in which spatial associations between objects dissolve. Yet beneath the surface of the observed city lies a hidden and unnamable significance. Cognitive theories serve to better explain this simultaneity of superficiality and depth in the text, in which the narrators{\textquoteright} dissecting observation becomes a transformative gaze by which they seek to pull back on the city{\textquoteright}s surface and to uncover the slumbering secrets below. (CV)}, issn = {0026-9271}, URL = {https://mon.uwpress.org/content/111/2/249}, eprint = {https://mon.uwpress.org/content/111/2/249.full.pdf}, journal = {Monatshefte} }