The four prose texts discussed inLiterary Rooms position themselves in a literary tradition which highlights the manifold purposes the private room may serve: it is a mirror of the inhabitant, a context in which to position the self, a place of and motor for identity quests, a rich metaphor, and a second skin around the inhabitants physical body. Even in times of increasing globalization and urbanization, the room continues to root the inhabitant; it serves as a retreat from the world and as a place in which to (re)negotiate questions of belonging, gender, class, and ethnicity. At the same time, the room is inevitably porous and constantly oscillates between inclusion and exclusion. The literary texts examined in this book are each highly fragmented and gesture towards a fragmentation of the contemporary world out of which they have grown as well as towards an abundance of fragmented self-images. Linking the approaches of narratology, globalization, and spatial criticism,Literary Rooms argues that in order to account for the spatial properties of the room, discourses developed during thespatial turn need to be extended and reevaluated.

Katharina Christ-Pielensticker earned her Magister degree in English and Italian at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, and Università di Pisa. She then joined the American Studies department of Humboldt-Universität as a PhD candidate and adjunct teacher.