COUNTRIES OF LAST THINGS. LOCATION AND DISLOCATION IN MODERN DYSTOPIAS
COUNTRIES OF LAST THINGS. LOCATION AND DISLOCATION IN MODERN DYSTOPIAS
Author(s): Olga ŞtefanSubject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai
Keywords: Paul Auster; New York; urbanism; dystopia; devastation; nostalgia; subjectivity.
Summary/Abstract: Countries of Last Things. Location and Dislocation in Modern Dystopias. The present paper aims to discuss dystopia as narrative of personal dislocation. When the space one assumes as “home” is emptied of those very attributes that built its significance as such, it is, instead, invested with the potential of becoming a “bad place”, thus, a dystopian one. I follow two early approaches to modern dystopia, and Paul Auster’s 1987 atypical novel, In the Country of Last Things, which I intend to read in terms of creating a dystopian space and describing the devastating potentialities seeded in the urban environments of the present world.
Journal: Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai - Philologia
- Issue Year: 57/2012
- Issue No: 4
- Page Range: 119-129
- Page Count: 11
- Language: English