La dimensione spaziale nell’opera di Per Olov Enquist

The spatial dimension plays a fundamental role in Per Olov Enquist’s works, where it operates at three different levels: a geographical one, with the recurring presence of physical places, often from the author’s native region, VästerboIen; the emotional one, represented by the green house of his infancy; and the hermeneutical one, where space is used as a metaphor to understand and explain both the world and oneself. This article aims at analyzing these levels in the light of Gaston Bachelard’s theory about the role of domestic space in the definition of identity and of Fredric Jameson’s concept of cognitive mapping as an instrument to interrelate with the world.