Boarding Houses and Bedsits in Muriel Spark's Writings

Abstract

Boarding houses and bedsits are crucial to the life and literary career of Muriel Spark. Temporary accommodation has provided her with source material and space to write in. This article examines both Spark's life experience in boarding houses, bedsits and rented rooms and her literary representations of these spaces. Through reading Spark's work alongside Foucault's theory of heterotopia, it investigates the transitory, precarious but also potentially transgressive nature of the boarding environment. This article argues that Spark's fiction reveals Spark's treatment of the estrangement and oppression endured by social outcasts. It also notes that these alternative living spaces are shown to be potentially liberating, as they provide opportunities for vulnerable groups to claim agency, asserting control over their precarious lives.

Keywords

Muriel Spark / Boarding House / Bedsit / Foucault / Heterotopia / Gender / Race / Class

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