Invisible boundaries: A comparative study of characters in/and space in north and south and nice work

This study examines the role of social space in the social beings' lives. It argues that, shaped by the human experience, space is itself a shaping force that reflects itself on the human being, having the power of controlling and governing their presence on earth. This argument is further investigated to encompass the spatial structure of contemporary social scene. The condition of the urban subject who is supposed to practice his/her life inside this spatial structure is therefore surveyed in characters' relationship with their space in Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South and David Lodge's Nice Work, a postmodern rewriting of the canonical novel. The spatial structures of both novels are determinant of the characters' identity formation. The spatial shift the characters of both novels face is crucial to the whole of the thesis, since in the characters' move across different spaces, there are clues as to how these two novels reflecting different societies present different answers to the spatial question. These different answers are sought through the concepts of Thirdspace and mobility, which provide an alternative space, opened up within the urban space, which is inclusive and celebrative of differences. This alternative understanding of space also enables the hybrid identity to form amidst the cityscape of our times, which the characters of the postmodern text employ in their identity formation.