Representation of Places in Etel Adnan’s In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country and Of Cities & Women (Letters to Fawwaz)

This article will take a close look at two books of Etel Adnan which are strongly tied to the representation of places. References to nature found in both books link the places she is physically present in to her inner-spaces. Additionally, the people she encounters in these locations also become elements with which she weaves different places together. In Of Cities & Women (Letters to Fawwaz), the notion of place is particularly enriched by the different qualities of the women she finds in each location, comparing the situation of women in the Orient and the Occident. The shadow of recent wars hangs heavy in the memories of Adnan as she travels between these different places in both books – the thought of which never abandons her.