The Periscope and the Labyrinth is an investigation into cultural identity, consciousness and landscape rooted in the body’s experience of the city. The modern phenomenon of flânerie is used as a means of examining vari- ous sites of particular interest to queer mythology within New York and Rome via the device of personal ;;derives’ or drifts inspired by a legacy of city writing, whereby the particular relationship between identity, place and space becomes clear. The flâneur has been essential to previous writings on the topic of ;;queer space’ in that he is one who ;;relies on the ambiguities of the modern city, and the uncertainties that linger in the fleeting experi- ence of a backward glance.’ It is these very ambiguities that associate the flâneur as the quintessential ;;cruiser.’ Yet the potential of the flâneur lies in his ;;alchemical’ abilities. A contemporary interpretation of alchemy is used through out the thesis as both a psychological method for understand- ing the ;;union of opposites’, as well as a reading of the parallels between individual and collective identity as they relate to particular sites. These archetypal opposites are typified by the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus; the duality of their characteristics exemplified by the metaphor of the title in which the conscience of the ;;Apollonian eye’ of the flâneur within the labyrinthof the Dionysian underworld’ describing the alchemical teachings which underpin this work.
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