Reading Imperialistic Space: The Crystal Palace

Abstract

Even though during the nineteenth century Great Britain boasted the largest empire in history, its ex-colony, the United States, and other European powers competed fiercely against it. It is at this time that the world fairs, displaying the latest industrial and scientific advances advertised and celebrated a country’s leadership. The Great Exhibition of 1851 gave Britain the perfect opportunity to showcase its world supremacy, but it is the Crystal Palace, the iconic building that housed the event, which has survived in the people’s imagination. This article focuses on this legendary building as a space rich for interpretation. In particular, I will explore the function of the exhibition and its building as spatial spectacle, capable of doing two things: first, of engaging with its visitors in such a way as to create sensations of awe and wonder; and second, of masking cultural and social anxieties under a veneer of spatial and discursive “transparency.” As an interdisciplinary study, this article works under the premise that architectural spaces, like literature, can be read and interpreted. According to this stance, then, the Crystal Palace will be approached as a textual building or a built text that prompts interpretation.