SPACE, REPRESENTATION AND SUBVERSION: EXPLORING FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES IN FREDRICK BACKMAN’S NOVEL MY GRANDMOTHER SENDS HER REGARDS AND APOLOGIESE

Abstract

This paper examines space, representation and subversion in Fredrick Backman’s novel My Grandmother Sends her Regards and Apologizes in the context of. The story of the novel is narrated the from the perspective of a seven years old girl, which is an innocent and optimistic lens to see something with, but it is not just limited to a child story; rather it is embedded with vast range of various adult themes, such as acceptance, womanhood, female agency and gender equality etc. It makes it’s one think of things that we often do not ponder over in our daily lives. This paper utilizes feminist theory and investigates the subversion of conventional motherhood and wifehood and the way characters break stereotypical norms and expectations of the society. The objective of this paper is to study how the female characters in the novel are different from conventional women, to understand how they try to discover their own selves and the way they find consolation in the company of each other. This study also uses Mitchel Foucault’s notion of utopia and heterotopia, and explores how these spaced are created in the novel and what sort of changes occurs when a female character sees herself in this alternative space. This research study is using qualities research method as a tool to manifest its main contentions.