Wiktoria Bryzys

My dissertation, The Personified City: Desire and Lament in Medieval Castilian and Hispano-Arabic Poetry, examines the literary specificity of the representation of urban space, with particular attention to the use of the personified city in chronicles, epic poems, and ballads from Christian and Muslim perspectives in medieval Iberia. I analyze the personification of cities as a mechanism of thought that creates emotional connections with space, shaping the portrayal of the city at the intersection of historical and literary narratives. Theoretical frameworks on space and gender underpin my investigation to examine how Castilian and Andalusian cities are depicted as female figures —desired when imagined and mourned when destroyed. What does it mean to personify space, and how is the personified space produced? Why do authors lend a voice and a body to a place, and whose voice and body are they? Where does the desire to possess or to mourn a city come from? These are some of the questions that my research seeks to address.