Hausen außer Haus: Transitorische Räume in Marilynne Robinsons Housekeeping (1980) und Ernst Augustins Robinsons blaues Haus (2012)

AbstractThe German figura etymologica ‘Hausen außer Haus,’ as ‘dwelling’ or ‘housing outside the house,’ is developed in this paper as a specific figure of thought in two contemporary literary texts in which the respective protagonists’ outside ‘housing’ contrasts with the space of the houses they pass through, thus transforming them into transitory spaces through the reflection of the outside. This dialectical movement challenges the concept of the house as a definable space. In terms of literary-spatial theory, the protagonists are examined as transitory figures; their transgressions of inside/outside and up/down are identified in a topological analysis, and finally the argument is presented that the imagination of the protagonists functions as a transitory modus as they move within the narrative. Both texts show the ability of literature to reflect on space and enable a link to the spatial turn of 1980 s cultural studies. The innovative contribution of my argument occurs in rethinking the concept of the house as a definable space with reliable boundaries and in proposing a conception of the outside as a potential change to the inside. By providing new insights into the concept of the house, literature itself can be seen as a space of thinking ‘outside the house.’