The Room and the Cell. Queer Spectrality in Sarah Waters’s Affinity
Abstract
This paper discusses the representation of spaces in the novel Affinity (1999) by Sarah Waters. Specifically, it investigates the representation of a public space (the prison) and a private space (the house), and the ways in which they intertwine and mirror each other. By adopting the critical tools of Carla Freccero’s queer spectrality, this paper explores the representation of the homosexual relationship between the two female protagonists, and how it is connected to the representation of the spaces of the novel. Waters creates a series of dichotomies (visible/invisible, public/private, confinement/liberation) that end up being different faces of the same oppression imposed on the protagonists.
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