The Workings of Space in Steve Tomasula’s VAS: An Opera in Flatland

Authors : Gülşen ASLAN USLU

Pages : 53-73

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Publication Date : 2021-05-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This article investigates the workings of space in Steve Tomasula’s first novel VAS: An Opera in Flatland insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2002);. As an experimental novel, VAS makes use of space on different levels. The first one is the spatial form, which informs the structure of the novel. Rather than following a linear narration, VAS employs a wide range of sources and topics and incorporates them within its fictional world with the use of hypertext. The narrative space of the novel, which is the fictional space where the characters of the novel are dwelling in, is America in an unidentified future time. In this place, the human body becomes a site on which different discourses such as history, genealogy, and medicine interact. Finally, the spatial design of the novel presents not only verbal text but also images, graphics, pictures, charts that all help the book mimic the human body, and thus bring the physicality of the book to the front. The interaction of these three levels of space exhibits that as an example of experimental fiction VAS uses the space of the novel in such a way to reflect the tenets and answer the needs of the digital age.
Keywords : VAS An Opera in Flatland, Space, Spatial Form, Hypertext, Materiality, VAS An Opera in Flatland, Space, Spatial Form, Hypertext, Materiality