The Category Of Space In Modernist Literature Analysis

4.1. The Category of Space in Modernist Literature

It is definitely worth noting that the end of the 19th century was marked by the period known as fin-de-siècle, which is considered to be an initial stage of modernism, so the ideas and concerns, including those connected with representation of space in literature, provided by fin-de-siècle artists were continued and developed by those of modernism.

It is worth noting that fin-de-siècle literature was marked by man’s pessimistic vision of life. Man is uncertain and doubtful about the reality he lives in, which leads to the questioning of the meaning of things, and sometimes to the perception of the world as a grotesque play. What is more, texts that were written during this period are impregnated

changed modernist’s perception of the concept of space; the understanding of aspect of space as an objective and permanent phenomenon and the distinctiveness of the spatial dimension were fundamentally destroyed.

The establishment of an objective global dateline and new conceptions of space stressing their dependency on the observer and the context in which they operate radically undermined the certainties build on the idea of a stable universe and a rationally fixes perception of the

The Category of Space in Dystopia: Urban versus Rural Space

Undoubtedly, the nature has always been an important aspect of people’s life, but in the 20th century with the rise of new ideologies such as Nazism and Stalinism, urban space becomes one of the main themes in literature. In their works the dystopian writers also investigate the importance of these two oppositions and try to examine how these two concepts are reflected in dystopian writing.

It seems that authors of dystopian novels usually decide to describe the city where action takes place, which in most cases is the capital. In such a place everything is organized and controlled by the government, starting with time and work of citizens, ending with sex and drugs. Undoubtedly, it is important for dystopian government to control every sphere of human life especially in urban reality as the city tends to symbolize the success of present ideology and the power of authorities.

The question that rises is this: if urban space is of such great importance in dystopian fiction, then what is the role of nature? Respectively, dystopian authors study this question and try to provide an explanation. There are no doubts that nature has always impacted greatly on the organization of human life, but it seems that the hunger for power of totalitarianism influences even this. There are two options of what place nature can occupy in this kind of works; it either obeys the power of the dystopian metropolis and is completely controlled,