An Analysis Of Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From The Goon Squad From The Perspective Of Space Theory

Jennifer Egan is a contem porary American writer and an outstanding journalist who publishes articles in New York Times. She incorporates the inte rview experience into her writing. So far, she has publishe d four novels and two collections of short stories, including A Visit from the Goon Squad, which has the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award in 2011. Taken A Visit from the Goon Squad as the object of research, guided by the space th eories, the present thes is is to exp lore the physical space, non-physical space and the third space as reflected in the novel.This thesis applies literature review and text analysis as the research methods. The ideas of three representatives o f space theory are introduced in this thes is. Heri Lefebvre’s The Production of Space provides the theoretical basis of the space theory. He points out that history, society and space are interacting with each other. Michel Foucault holds that power belongs to “het erotopia” and he practices his idea in his cognition of the relationship among power, constructions and territories. Soja inherits and develops the thoughts of Lefebvre and F oucault. Soja argues that the third space means to be open to interpretation. This thesis explores the physical space reflected in this novel. It tries to reveal the influences of the physical spaces toward the living condition of the modern people. It emphasizes in particular the influence of the urban space. The non-physical space includes the psychological space and the textual space of this novel. Psychological space explor es the psychological activities of the characters and textual s pace discusses the space created by the narrativ e skills. This thesis explores the third space and its implication in this novel.It concludes that th e physical space, non-p hysical space and the th ird space are interrelated. The physical space is related to the living condition of the characters and the culture. The non-physical space reflects the fragm entation of the modern people. And the construction of textual space helps the readers to participate in exploring the meaning of its content. Finally, the third space points to the ope nness of the social spaces.