IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v10y2023i1d10.1057_s41599-023-02037-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The heterotopia of the palace in Abdo Khal’s Throwing Sparks (2009)

Author

Listed:
  • Raid Althagafy

    (Alleith College University, Umm Al-Qura University)

Abstract

This article endeavors to negotiate Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia in Abdo Khal’s Booker-Award winning novel Throwing Sparks (2009). The central premise of this article is to offer a new understanding of spatiality, constituted by the simultaneous existences of ‘other’ spaces, which can be viewed in their relations as proximate to, contradictory to, or even reflective of each other. In this novel, the Palace is a real and symbolic space and/or place which oscillates between oppressive homogeneity and individualized depravity. The Palace in Throwing Sparks is a representational temporality that embodies the demarcation and relation between the ‘private’ and the ‘public’, allowing for a new site of material spatiality. The rise of an interstitial (heterotopic) space to fill in between the public and the private is what characterizes the Palace in the novel. It allows for the emergence of a whole landscape of power politics driven by the ramifications of the space and affecting its inhabitants. Since this space is analyzable, its inhabitants are overshadowed by its grander aura. In the Palace, the body does not belong to the individual and his/her own will. It rather belongs to the ‘institutionalized’ volition of the Palace in which ‘docility’ rather than subjectivity and agency is what remains as a performative practice for the survival of its inhabitants.

Suggested Citation

  • Raid Althagafy, 2023. "The heterotopia of the palace in Abdo Khal’s Throwing Sparks (2009)," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-02037-7
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-023-02037-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-023-02037-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-023-02037-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ghulyan, Husik, 2019. "Lefebvre’s Production of Space in the Context of Turkey: A Comprehensive Literature Survey," SocArXiv r85v9, Center for Open Science.
    2. Husik Ghulyan, 2019. "Lefebvre’s Production of Space in the Context of Turkey: A Comprehensive Literature Survey," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(3), pages 21582440198, August.
    3. Meijuan Zhao & Lay Hoon Ang & Sabariah Md Rashid & Florence Haw Ching Toh, 2022. "Translating Narrative Space in Children’s Fiction Bronze and Sunflower From Chinese to English," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(1), pages 21582440211, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li Wang & Lay Hoon Ang & Fumeng Gao & Hazlina Abdul Halim, 2023. "The relationality of parts for narrative identity constitution in the corporate profile translations of China’s multinational corporations," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-02037-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.