Contemporary Writing and the Politics of Space: Borders, Networks, Escape Lines

304 Pages·2017·1.881 MB·English

by  David Walton (editor), Juan Antonio Suárez (editor)

C U L T U R A L H I S T O R Y A N D
L I T E R A R Y I M A G I N A T I O N
This collective volume explores questions of space in contemporary W
literary texts from a range of theoretical perspectives. In addition a
to mapping the ‘spatial turn’ in literary and cultural studies, this lt
o
volume also brings together studies that apply spatial theory to n

the analysis of literary texts. Contributors tackle a broad range of a
n
themes, including how prose fiction addresses spaces of intimacy,
d
abjection, espionage, discipline, madness, post-human identities,
S
post-communist cities, the architecture of dystopia, and coercive u
á
medical practices. In turn, these themes open up analysis to key
r
e
areas within contemporary literary and cultural criticism, including
z
the study of sexuality, politics, power, and identity; the configuration (
e
of urban, regional, and national spaces and borders; and the
d
delineation of private and public domains. The contributors reflect s
)
on diverse authors from English-speaking cultures and focus on a •
variety of genres and periods while acknowledging recent research C
in space studies and offering original contributions to what has now o
become a thriving field. n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y
David Walton is Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of Cultural Studies
W
at the University of Murcia. He is a founding member, and currently
r
President, of the Iberian Association of Cultural Studies (IBACS). it
in
He is the author of the volumes Cultural Studies: Learning Through g Contemporary Writing
Practice and Doing Cultural Theory and editor, with J. A. Suárez,
a
of Culture, Space, and Power: Blurred Lines. n
d and the Politics of Space

Juan A. Suárez teaches American studies and American literature th
at the University of Murcia. He is the author of the books Bike Boys, e

Drag Queens, and Superstars; Pop Modernism; and Jim Jarmusch; Po Borders, Networks, Escape Lines
and editor, with David Walton, of the volume Culture, Space, and lit
Power: Blurred Lines. He is currently one of the Principal Investigators ic
of the HERA/European Commission-funded project ‘Cruising the s

o DAVID WALTON AND
Seventies: Unearthing Pre-HIV/AIDS Queer Sexual Cultures’.
f

S JUAN A. SUÁREZ (EDS)
p
a
c
ISBN 978-3-0343-2205-8
e
www.peterlang.com Peter Lang
C U L T U R A L H I S T O R Y A N D
L I T E R A R Y I M A G I N A T I O N
This collective volume explores questions of space in contemporary W
literary texts from a range of theoretical perspectives. In addition a
to mapping the ‘spatial turn’ in literary and cultural studies, this lt
o
volume also brings together studies that apply spatial theory to n

the analysis of literary texts. Contributors tackle a broad range of a
n
themes, including how prose fiction addresses spaces of intimacy,
d
abjection, espionage, discipline, madness, post-human identities,
S
post-communist cities, the architecture of dystopia, and coercive u
á
medical practices. In turn, these themes open up analysis to key
r
e
areas within contemporary literary and cultural criticism, including
z
the study of sexuality, politics, power, and identity; the configuration (
e
of urban, regional, and national spaces and borders; and the
d
delineation of private and public domains. The contributors reflect s
)
on diverse authors from English-speaking cultures and focus on a •
variety of genres and periods while acknowledging recent research C
in space studies and offering original contributions to what has now o
become a thriving field. n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y
David Walton is Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of Cultural Studies
W
at the University of Murcia. He is a founding member, and currently
r
President, of the Iberian Association of Cultural Studies (IBACS). it
in
He is the author of the volumes Cultural Studies: Learning Through g Contemporary Writing
Practice and Doing Cultural Theory and editor, with J. A. Suárez,
a
of Culture, Space, and Power: Blurred Lines. n
d and the Politics of Space

Juan A. Suárez teaches American studies and American literature th
at the University of Murcia. He is the author of the books Bike Boys, e

Drag Queens, and Superstars; Pop Modernism; and Jim Jarmusch; Po Borders, Networks, Escape Lines
and editor, with David Walton, of the volume Culture, Space, and lit
Power: Blurred Lines. He is currently one of the Principal Investigators ic
of the HERA/European Commission-funded project ‘Cruising the s

o DAVID WALTON AND
Seventies: Unearthing Pre-HIV/AIDS Queer Sexual Cultures’.
f

S JUAN A. SUÁREZ (EDS)
p
a
c
e
www.peterlang.com Peter Lang
Contemporary Writing
and the Politics of Space
CULTURAL HISTORY AND LITERARY IMAGINATION
EDITED BY CHRISTIAN J. EMDEN & DAVID MIDGLEY
VOL. 26
EDITORIAL BOARD
RODRIGO CACHO, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
SARAH COLVIN, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
KENNETH LOISELLE, TRINITY UNIVERSITY
HEATHER WEBB, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
PETER LANG
Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien
Contemporary Writing
and the Politics of Space
Borders, Networks, Escape Lines
David Walton and Juan A. Suárez (eds)
PETER LANG
Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbiblio-
grafie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017941145
Cover image: David Walton, Angel of History (Rebooted) (2016).
Cover design: Peter Lang Ltd.
ISSN 1660-6205
ISBN 978-3-0343-2205-8 (print) • ISBN 978-1-78707-632-7 (ePDF)
ISBN 978-1-78707-633-4 (print) • ISBN 978-1-78707-634-1 (ePDF)
© Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2017
Wabernstrasse 40, CH-3007 Bern, Switzerland
[email protected], www.peterlang.com, www.peterlang.net
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of
the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and
processing in electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Juan Antonio Suárez and David Walton
Writing and the Politics of Space: An Introduction 1
Part I Borders 21
David Griffiths
1 Coercive Hospital Spaces in Pat Barker’s
The Regeneration Trilogy 23
Ángel Galdón Rodríguez
2 Metropolitan Isolation in Dystopian Literature 49
María Luisa Pascual Garrido
3 The Island Space in Film Adaptations of The Tempest:
On the Invisibility of Borders 69
Clara Pallejá-López
4 The House: Friend or Foe? Buildings, Dwellings,
and Home in Fiction 95
Laura Torres-Zúñiga
5 Thresholds of Abjection: Identity and Space in
Tennessee Williams’s Fiction 115
vi
Part II Networks 137
Ana Rull Suárez
6 Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day: Sociopolitical Suspicion
and Double Spaces of Espionage 139
Ángel Mateos-Aparicio Martín-Albo
7 ‘Perfect Cities, Permanent Hells’: The Ideological
Coordinates of Urban Space in Postmodern Science Fiction 155
Isabel Santaularia i Capdevila
8 They Aren’t the Big Bad Communists We Were Raised
to Think They Were? The Representation of Russia in
Contemporary Crime Fiction and Thrillers 179
Martyna Bryla
9 Charting the Liminal Geographies of Eastern Europe in
Joyce Carol Oates’s Short Stories 201
Part III Escape Lines 223
A. Robert Lee
10 Bound and Unbound: Figurations of
Time-Space in African American Authorship 225
Estíbaliz Encarnación-Pinedo
11 Reconfiguring the Epic Space in Anne Waldman’s
The Iovis Trilogy 241
vii
Tomás Monterrey
12 The Literary Geography of a Border Zone:
The Canary Islands in Ewing Campbell’s Afoot
in the Garden of Enchantments 259
Notes on Contributors 281
Index 287