The Writing of Space in the Novels Circles and The Closed Gate by David Maletz

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the reading of two novels by David Maletz (18891981): Circles (1945) and The Closed Gate (1959). It deals with the representation of space and suggests a poetical reading of Maletz’s writings. The historical realism and political consequences of Maletz’s literary work is suspended here, in order to closely follow his phenomenological art of representation. The first part of the article addresses the representation of spaces such as the private room, the field and the group, as they appear in the novel Circles. The second part offers a close reading of Maletz’s poetical syntax in the novel The Closed Gate.