On the Happening of “Frank’s Place”: A Neo-Heideggerian Psychogeographic Appreciation of an Enchanted Locale

Abstract

Abstract In this experimental article, I employ what I term a neo-Heideggerian approach that entails harnessing a selective amalgamation of the thought of Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) as a hermeneutical energy, which I direct towards my account of a series of personal psychogeographic experiences that have entailed encounters with an enchanted social space otherwise obscured within the working-class suburb of Scarborough, Ontario (Canada). I engage this neo-Heideggerian hermeneutical energy not as a professional philosopher but rather as a working culturalist interested in exploring how Heidegger’s thought can be made “to do” in the contemporary multicultural world. Accordingly, I seek to redeem his thinking from crass accusations of being commensurate with a white-inflected blood and soil nationalism.