Amor Loci: Auden in Rookhope

Abstract

I present a conspectus of the imaginative geography of the English poet WH Auden. This imaginative geography is avowedly the product of a rootless, cosmopolitan which extols domestic virtues against the backcloth of an originary poetic homeland in Rookhope in the Northern Pennines of England. Auden’s poetry addresses eternal questions about the conditions under which communities thrive or decline, what dividends they bestow upon their members, the costs and benefits of choosing to cultivate local knowledge and attachments and how communities coexist at different scales. Auden’s topopoetics reflects his search for affective bonds in a life marked otherwise by placelessness. It is a quest for a sense of place in the absence of insideness – in this respect it affects more widespread concerns of how to belong to place in an age of hyper-globalisation. Although the landscape of the Northern Pennines held a profound aesthetic attraction for Auden, it was the numinous experience of his youth in Rookhope that allowed him to attach his poetic and personal biography to the place and ascribe its meaning. This amounted to a kind of elective belonging, albeit stripped of any sociological connotation or political commitment.

Family Bonding in Confinement of the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

“…Other research details that such unprecedented isolation measures on social distancing, which prevent access to social support systems such as extended family, friends, acquaintances, and community ties, can affect mental well-being and cause a feeling of loneliness, anxiety, and depression (Alfawaz et al, 2021;Bzdok & Dunbar, 2020;Garcı á et al, 2002;Long et al, 2022) Family bonding is the inclusion of a member within the family, with all that this encompasses: admission, accommodation, and incorporation; this inclusion implies the acceptance that this member is part of the family structure; It is relevant that all family members can turn to others for support and support, especially in risky situations such as the current context Rodríguez Mateo et al, 2018). The universal and characteristic concept of the family is one of union, coexistence, and attachment among its members; however, there are circumstances in which these are not the main factors that characterize any family going through moments of stability and instability (Gough, 1959 ;Seltzer, 2000;Tomaney, 2022;Traina, 2022). From the systemic model, the different relationships established within the family system create relevance in the current context (Jamali & Mirshak, 2007;Patterson, 2002), since depending on the links formed, the effects mentioned above could be more or less profound (Walsh, 2003); a strong family leadership, defined by its upbringing, guidance, and protection, would be essential for the maintenance of stability (Committee, 2004;Walsh, 2015), however, in times of stress and uncertainty, the emotional affection and exhaustion, exhaust the caregiver resources, modifying parenting styles and weakening positive leadership, triggering a strain on the parent-child relationship (Prime et al, 2020;Wade et al, 2020).…”