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AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume 5, Number3. August 2021 Pp. 101-112
Department of Foreign Languages, University of 20th August 1955, Skikda, Algeria
This paper aims to investigate the role played by Hailsham, the fictional boarding school in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go, in the mind of its central characters as seen through Gaston Bachelard’s conception of space. The article then aims to explore how the memory of Hailsham works as a coping mechanism for some of the novel’s characters, especially for Kathy. After a brief survey of Bachelard’s spatial criticism, the article then discusses the elements of intimacy in the space of Hailsham and portrays the boarding school as a oneiric house or a childhood home in Bachelard’s terms. By using an analytical method, this study offers an examination of two notions, that of memory and that of imagination, which are built upon the aspect of association and intimacy. Following the development of the plot of Never Let Me Go, the article sheds light on the role played by the so-called “cottages” in the shaping of these character’s relations to themselves, to each other, and to the outside world. This paper opens the door to other critics to read Never Let Me Go from the perspective of other spatial theorists like Mitchel Foucault, Henri Lefevbre, and Edward Soja.
Bouacida, S., Lecheheb, I., Boumali, I., & Khlifa, N.(2021). Hailsham as an Intimate Space: A Bachelardian Reading of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies 5 (3) 101-112.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awejtls/vol5no3.8
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Dr. Soumaya Bouacida is an assistant professor of English Literature at Skikda University in Algeria. She has got her Ph.D. degree in English Literature from the University of Jordan. She is interested in postmodern studies, postcolonial literature and African American literature. She has participated in some international conferences and has published some interesting papers on postmodernism , African American studies, food studies and classical literature in different Journals such as Critical Survey and Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literature.ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8758-1295
Dr. Ikram Lecheheb is an assistant professor at Skikda University, Algeria. She got her Ph.D. from the University of Jordan. She has interests in Arabic literature, English Literature, Diaspora, Ethnicity, Identity Studies, and Trauma Studies. She has published an article entitled “Hearing Voices: A Corporeal Expression of Trauma in Margaret Atwood’s Lady Oracle” and participated in various international conferences.ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7605-2649
Itidel Boumalit is an independent scholar. She got her MA degree in English Literature from the University of Skikda, Algeria. She is interested in modernism, postmodernism and space studies. ORCiD ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8758-1295
Nada Khlifa is an independent scholar. She got her MA degree in English Literature from the University of Skikda, Algeria. She is interested in modernism, Realist Literature, postmodernism and space studies. ORCiD ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2169-5051
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