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Title HETEROTOPIA, AGENCY, AND THE EMBODIED SPACES: A NEW MATERIALIST READING OF THOMAS MANN’S THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN AND MOHAMMAD HANIF’S OUR LADY OF ALICE BHATTI

Author(s) Miraj Ulfat

Abstract Title: Heterotopia, Agency, and the Embodied Spaces: A New Materialist Reading of Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain and Mohammad Hanif’s Our Lady of Alice Bhatti This study investigates the concept of Heterotopia in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain and Mohammad Hanif’s Our Lady of Alice Bhatti. It focuses hospital as heterotopic space. I have drawn on Michel Foucault’s idea of “heterotopia” and Karen Barad’s concept of “Agential Realism”. As a supporting theoretical lens, I invoke Henry Lefebvre’s idea of “embodied spaces”. In both the selected texts, the human body has been used as an embodiment of space that moves between heterotopic and normative spaces. It experiences a transition between two spaces and develops spatial consciousness. This spatial consciousness leads to radical subjectivity in order to create harmony among societal conflicts. Barad’s “Agential Realism” is the mutual interaction of human and non-human agencies. Barad calls human and nonhuman interaction “agential cuts” that open the way to attach “others” unintentionally as they are not very far from us. The location and fluidity of human characters into and around heterotopic spaces reveal intra-actions of human experience and non-human material objects. That is how embodied spaces, heterotopias and agential realism get connected in an argument. I have conducted my research from a new materialist perspective. New Materialism is an interdisciplinary field of study where the focus lies on quantum mechanical description of material which goes against the anthropocentric approach of study. New materialism opens up new avenues to rethink human existence within new materialistic framework. I have used Catherine Belsey’s research method, ‘Textual Analysis’ in order to examine my primary texts. This study is likely to productively contribute to the production of knowledge in the area of spatial studies.

Type Thesis/Dissertation

Faculty Languages

Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2025-01-28

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