Original scientific paper
Heterotopical transcendences in Jokha Alharthi’s novel Celestial Bodies
Mirza Sarajkić
; Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo
Abstract
This paper analyzes the novel Celestial Bodies (Sayyidat al-qamar) by the Omani author Jokha Alharthi from the perspective of the poetics of space. Although critics primarily interpret the novel in the context of the social transformation of Oman and through a feminist lens, it is the fact that the spaces play a significant role in Alharthi's fictional world. The capital city, Muscat, became a kind of utopia, where the ideals of a progressive society have become embodied. On the other hand, al-Awafi, as a native province, is entirely marginalized. The province is an area without status or place in the new social order, but not without its own functions. Such a position turns al-Awafi into an ambiguous heterotopia. Al-Awafi is simultaneously the psychological anchorage of the main characters, but also a resting place whose shadows spoil the urban splendour of Muscat. Its heterotopicity is intensified by the fragments of the intradiegetic narrator from the plane and by the ritual dance of the zar in the desert. Spaces in Alharthi's novels represent heterogeneous entities and polysemic places that have a decisive effect on the plot and all the characters of this award-winning novel.
Keywords
contemporary Omani novel; Jokha Alharthi; space; heterotopia; rupture; the third space
Hrčak ID:
309961
URI
Publication date:
20.11.2023.
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