Studies in Literature and Language
The Geographical Heterotopia in Douglas Coupland’s Generation X
Abstract
By locating Palm Springs, the setting of Generation X, within the highly capitalist American society in the 1990s, Coupland transforms it into a geographical heterotopia in terms of both spatial and temporal dimensions—spatially it is distinct from the middle-class working environment characteristic of modern urban America; temporally it resists the stereotypical scenarios of the West that have been all-too-often sedimented in the public mind since American Westward expansion. By highlighting the anti-capitalist ethos and apocalyptic tones of this geographical heterotopia, Coupland expresses his disappointment with and resistance to all-pervasive capitalism in US.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/11336
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