Spatial Checkpoints of Power: A Study of Smooth and Striated Spaces in Ghassan Kanfani's "The Land of Sad Oranges" (1962) and Richard Wright's "Big Boy Leaves Home" (1938)

Abstract

Throughout the two short stories "The Land of Sad Oranges" (1962) by Ghassan Kanafani and "Big Boy
Leaves Home" (1938) by Richard Wright, spaces are not only created, mapped, and described but also
negotiated and changed. Spaces are not passive vessels in which the plot unfolds, but rather directors of
action and shapers of identity. Using Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's notions of smooth and striated
spaces sheds light on the profound ways in which the state apparatus determines human relations to spaces
and geography. The act of crossing borders between different divisions of geography not only brings
about transformation but also begets tragedy. The current research demonstrates that different power
structures change spaces of freedom to places of confinement through complex transformational
interventions aimed at changing smooth spaces' characteristics to striated ones. Those transformations are
not final or absolute but partial and gradual.