Space in Cardinal's Au Pays de mes racines and Goytisolo's Coto vedado

In her article "Space in Cardinal's Au Pays de mes racines and Goytisolo's Coto vedado" Laura Dennis discusses the ways in which two memoirs of the late twentieth century treat exile and diverse spaces as part of a quest for a place in which to live fully and freely. Juan Goytisolo's Coto vedado and Marie Cardinal's Au Pays de mes racines constitute particularly rich treatments of space and exile and the ways in which these intersect with questions of culture, gender, and power. Dennis uses Henri Lefebvre's theories of abstract and differential space together with Gillian Rose's feminist study of geography to examine more closely each author's experience of the various spaces they inhabit. Additionally, she explores how each author takes experiences beyond the personal to highlight an array of problems and contradictions surrounding space in a much broader sense. Finally, Dennis's comparison shows how both works move beyond the problems they describe to outline a new conception of space that is defined less by restrictive limits and more by dynamic possibilities. Laura Dennis, "Space in Cardinal's Au Pays de mes racines and Goytisolo's Coto vedado" page 2 of 10 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 11.4 (2009):