Mobility, Spatiality, and Resistance in Literary and Political Discourse (Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies)

Mobility, Space, and Resistance: Transformative Spatiality in Literary and Political Discourse draws from various disciplines―such as geography, sociology, political science, gender studies, and poststructuralist thought―to posit the productive capabilities of literature in political action and at the same time show how literary art can resist the imposition and domination of oppressive systems of our spatial lives. The various approaches, topics, and types of literature discussed in this volume display a concern for social issues that can be addressed in and through literature. The essays address social injustice, oppression, discrimination, and their spatial representations. While offering interpretations of literature, this collection seeks to show how literary spaces contribute to understanding, changing, or challenging physical spaces of our lived world. Series Editor’s Preface 6 Acknowledgments 8 Contents 10 Notes on Contributors 13 List of Figures 16 Chapter 1: Introduction: Movement, Space, and Power in the Creative Act 17 Mobility 27 Spatiality 31 Radical Positions 33 Works Cited 35 Part I: Mobility 37 Chapter 2: Colonial Advertising and Tourism in the Crosscurrents of Empire 38 Anna’s Global Imagination 42 Reverse Castaway 48 The Body Geographic 52 Touring the Empire 60 Works Cited 69 Chapter 3: The Chivalrous Nation: Travel and Ideological Exchange in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 72 Works Cited 86 Chapter 4: Conjuring Roots in Dystopia: Reconciling Transgenerational Conflict and Dislocation Through Ancestral Speakers in Nalo Hopkinson’s Brown Girl in the Ring and Edwidge Danticat’s Brother, I’m Dying 87 Caribbean Connections 88 Metaphysical Conflict in Dystopia 93 Politicizing Identity, Nationality, and “Home” 94 Conjuring Ancestors and Spiritual Messengers 97 Sacrificing for Family and Opportunities 100 Reconciling Transgenerational Displacement Through Storytelling and Spiritual Practice 102 Works Cited 103 Chapter 5: Mobility, Incarceration, and the Politics of Resistance in Palestinian Women’s Literature 105 Golda Slept Here (2014) and Colonial Architecture 109 Boundaries and the Colonized Space in Out of It (2011): Gaza and the Outside World 117 Works Cited 126 Chapter 6: Matriarchal Mobility: Generational Displacement and Gendered Place in Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping 128 Works Cited 145 Part II: Spatiality 147 Chapter 7: Interiorized Imperialism in Native American and Japanese American World War II Narratives 148 Work Cited 172 Chapter 8: Turning the Earth, Changing the Narrative: Spatial Transformation in Frances E. W. Harper’s Iola Leroy; or, Shadows Uplifted (1892) 174 Making Room in the Market and Woods: Challenging the Narrative 175 Turning the Earth: From Plantation (Slaves) to Homeowners (Citizens) 182 Something to See Here: Unearthing Racial Violence and Survival in the Reconstructed South 189 Conclusion 193 Works Cited 194 Chapter 9: Woolf in the Background: Distance as Visual Philosophy, Then and Now 196 A Philosophy of Depth 205 Woolf in the Panorama 209 Distances and Depth in Virtual Media 215 Works Cited 216 Part III: Radical Positions 218 Chapter 10: A New Cartographer: Rabih Alameddine and An Unnecessary Woman 219 Works Cited 240 Chapter 11: Vulnerable Erotic Encounters: A Chronotopic Reading of the Bus-Space in Chicu’s Soliloquy 243 Encounters and Space 246 Chronotopes and Genre 250 Encountering Vulnerability: Analysis of Soliloquy 253 Work Cited 263 Chapter 12: Anti-capitalism and the Near Future: In Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West and Louise Erdrich’s The Future Home of the Living God 266 Works Cited 288 Chapter 13: Frantz Fanon, Chester Himes, and a “Literature of Combat” 290 “Harlem” and “Palestine” 295 Violence and Organization 299 Final Reflections 303 Works Cited 304 Part IV: Conclusion 307 Chapter 14: Resisting a Wilting Society: To Blossom 308 Works Cited 318 Index 320 This collection shows how literary spaces contribute to understanding, changing, or challenging notions of mobility and physical spaces of our lived world. This project draws from various disciplines--such as geography, sociology, political science, gender studies, and poststructuralist thought--to posit the productive capabilities of literature in examining the politics of movement and spatial transformations. At the same time, this volume shows how literary art offers alternatives to oppressive institutions, practices, and systems of thought. In this way, this book is more than a collection of essays interpreting pieces of literature, it gestures outward to our space and encourages the creation of new spaces that meet the needs and desires of people, not institutions determined to control our movement, actions, ideologies, and thought. This volume outlines, diagrams, and maps the ways in which literature informs resistance, movement, and space. Christian Beck is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Central Florida, USA. He has published on a wide array of topics ranging from medieval English literature to graffiti and hacktivism. He recently published Spatial Resistance: Literary and Digital Challenges to Neoliberalism (2019) and is currently working on his next monograph, The Figure of the Vigilante: Concepts for Political and Social Justice __Mobility, Space, and Resistance: Transformative Spatiality in Literary and Political Discourse__