Space and Place: the Horror of Detachment in Emma Donoghue’s Room

Abstract

Like any other work devoted to spatial criticism, the present paper attempts to crystallize the significant role of space and place in literature and literary studies. The paper offers a study of different aspects of space in Emma Donoghue’s claustrophobic novel Room (2010). Room is the story of a five-year-old boy called Jack who was born in captivity in a room and was brought up solely by his mom in a confined space. The haunting effect of space, Jack’s bond with an unknown cyberspace, his place attachment and the psychological aftermath of his detachment from room and his final trauma after being released from the room will be discussed in details in this study. However, the main challenge of this study is the concept of place attachment and the aftermath of detachment for Jack as a child protagonist. The paper then highlights the way spatial aspects create that kind of attachment. The novel will be examined within the triangle of space criticism, attachment theory and trauma theory. The study concludes by stating to what extent the psychological bond caused between man’s psyche and place creates attachment and how disruption in this attachment ends up in psychological trauma in the same person. Keywords: Attachment, Place Attachment, Disruption in Place Attachment, Trauma, Cyberspace.