Landscapes, windows of the geographical soul

Abstract

The objective of this article is to investigate the concept of landscape from phenomenological perspectives, revealing its fields of vision and meanings. In order to do so, it demonstrates the differences between the definition of landscape in Traditional Geography and the way phenomenological approaches suggest its own definitions. Specifically, this article leaves visible the debate on vision as a central element of the landscape, highlighting the ways in which Humanistic Geography and postmodern geographies emphasize subjectivity, immateriality and consciousness in their understandings. The approaches that Humanistic Geography and postmodern geographies conduct their phenomenological contributions are not the same and their distinctions were underlined in this text. Thereby, such forms of geographic work have contributed to expanding the subjects covered by geographic research, in addition to multiplying work methodologies in Human Geography more generally. Preference was given to citations from primary bibliographic sources, such as Yi Fu Tuan, David Ley, Edward Relph, John Wylie, among other authors. We hope to avoid the biases of synthetic and total analyses, which often reduce the diversity of geographic knowledge. Finally, this article aims to clarify doubts in the use of the concept of landscape that are common among Geography students.