Community as embodied critique: A spatial and textual analysis of Jerusalem, New York (Jemima Wilkinson)

This dissertation is a spatial and textual analysis of an Eighteenth Century community founded by Jemima Wilkinson at Jerusalem, New York. As a result of my research I have created the first map of this community. In reading the map of Jerusalem I employ a matrix of theoretical approaches1 that have the potential to broaden the scope of the canon of architecture and architectural history by exploiting the subversive aspect of feminist and postmodern analysis2 to examine the "alternative" historical subjects of Jerusalem and Jemima Wilkinson.; Jerusalem is unique in terms of its settlement pattern. The location of dwellings in relation to the civic structures and services in Jerusalem indicates that it is a matriarchal community in which the expected structure of a (patriarchal) nucleated village3---with civic functions surrounding a public space or town square---is inverted.; Contemporary descriptions of Wilkinson range from the over-eroticized whore to the de-feminized man-woman. Wilkinson portrayed herself as neutral---she believed that her feminine spirit died and was replaced by a new spirit---the Public Universal Friend. Following the work of feminist philosophers and geographers I examine these tropes and conclude that her most important role is that of a woman who structured an embodied space where she and the members of her community could live freely outside the constraints of society. This embodied space can be considered, in the general instance, to comprise her whole community and in the specific instance can be considered the space of her house, into which a diverse set of functions is encoded: house, church, town center, fortress, and Panopticon.; Through the lens of critical theory---in particular, the work of Foucault---the community of Jerusalem emerges as a critical space, a heterotopia. I employ it to critique and assess a pattern of American urbanism fostered by Thomas Jefferson. Jerusalem was created through poiesis (creation through process allowing for change) and can be contrasted with planned communities that reflect the concept of creation through techne (creation according to an ideal plan).; 1I have studied a number of theoretical approaches in my course of study in the Humanities Doctoral Program. My primary coursework has been in the fields of architecture, women's studies, geography and philosophy. 2Nancy Duncan discusses Philip Cooke's work on the subversive potential of postmodern analysis in an unpublished article on Post-Modernism she gave to me in 1994. 3Wood, Joseph, The Organization of the New England Village: A thesis in Geography, Dissertation, Pennsylvania State University, 1978 discusses the trend at the end of the Revolution for settlements to form nucleated villages at the center of the townships where public services and government resided.