Sticky and Stuck: The Lift as a Vehicle in the Production of Social Space in Livi Michael’s Under a Thin Moon and Loretta Ramkissoon’s “Which Floor?”

IF 0.2 3区 文学 0 LITERATURE
Sophie Hampton
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Abstract

This essay analyzes Livi Michael’s novel Under a Thin Moon (1992) and Loretta Ramkissoon’s short memoir “Which Floor?” (2019) to examine representations of female experience of living in high-rise social housing. My analysis draws on the work of Henri Lefebvre and Doreen Massey to investigate the production of the tower block as a social space. The lift is employed as a lens to study the structuring and shaping of the high-rise narrative and explore how fiction can both reinforce and challenge dominant mythologies of social housing. The lift’s role is considered through themes of gendered experiences of disgust (stickiness) and mobilities (getting stuck). In Under a Thin Moon, the tower block lift embodies the narrative of the failure of the utopian solutions to the postwar housing crisis in the UK and its consequences. In “Which Floor?,” although the lift is a space inherent in the facilitation and nurturing of community, it nevertheless similarly captures a narrative of the immobility of high-rise life.
黏糊糊的:Livi Michael的《薄月之下》和Loretta Ramkisson的《哪层楼
本文分析了Livi Michael的小说《薄月之下》(1992年)和Loretta Ramkisson的短篇回忆录《哪一层?》(2019年),以考察女性在高层社会住房中的生活体验。我的分析借鉴了Henri Lefebvre和Doreen Massey的工作,研究了塔楼作为一个社会空间的生产。电梯被用作研究高层叙事结构和塑造的镜头,并探索小说如何强化和挑战社会住房的主导神话。电梯的作用是通过厌恶(粘性)和流动性(陷入困境)的性别体验来考虑的。在《薄月之下》中,塔楼升降机体现了英国战后住房危机乌托邦式解决方案的失败及其后果。在《哪一层?》中,尽管电梯是促进和培育社区所固有的空间,但它同样捕捉到了高层生活不动的叙事。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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CiteScore
0.30
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10
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