GEOGRAPHY OF THE IMAGINATION AND SPATIALITY IN DAVID GREIG’S EUROPE

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assistant professor at the Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts, Fayoum University

Abstract

In the last few decades spatial literary studies have witnessed an unprecedented expansion in the discourse related to boundaries and border-crossing particularly with the advent of postmodernism and postcolonial theory and practice. Since the ‘spatial turn’ in 1980s, writings of Michel Foucault,  Edward Soja and Henri Lefebvre have contributed to the theoretical critique pertaining to the reassertion of space in cultural and literary studies. This study aims to reveal insight into the spatial structures presented in David Greig’s Europe and their potential implications for the contemporary world. Examining Lefebvre’s theory of space, this study attempts to explore how his conceptualization of space helps in interpreting the relationship between space and subject in David Greig’s Europe. I return to Lefebvre via two other space theorists: Foucault and Soja to explore  the multiple representations of spatiality in Greig’s Europe. The research tries to answer the following questions: What are the spatial features depicted in the play? How do spatial paradigms work for the construction of geographical imagination in the play? How does space affect social relationships?

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