Another Break in the Wall
Sensorial Mapping as a New Geocritical Strategy for the Literary Cartography of the Berlin Wall in Hugo Hamilton’s Fiction
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 17824882 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Audrey Robitaillié (0000-0002-8020-8412, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Angles (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2274-2042 • E-ISSN: 2274-2042 |
| Publisher | OpenEdition Journals (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.4000/1630f |
| OpenAlex | W7154630540 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 16 |
Borders, walls, and migrant characters who challenge them feature prominently in the works of Hugo Hamilton, a transnational author whose German mother immigrated to Ireland after World War 2. This article focuses on the depiction of the Berlin Wall in four of his novels set in Germany. Interweaving personal and world histories, past and present, Hamilton explores relationships – with places as much as with people. In Surrogate City (1990), the narrative focuses on the character of Helen who has moved from Ireland to West Berlin, while the characters in The Love Test (1995) are from East Berlin and attempt to cross over to flee the Stasi. The protagonist of Disguise (2008) is in and out of Berlin in search of his own story and history. In Every Single Minute (2014), the narrator Liam takes his dying friend on a last touristic trip to the German capital. The corpus offers four different perspectives on the Berlin Wall that span a little over a decade in terms of publication, but nearly forty years with regards to the narratives: Surrogate City is set during the Cold War, The Love Test and Disguise alternate between chapters in a post-war, partitioned Germany and passages set in the aftermath of 1989, while Every Single Minute takes place in contemporary times. This study focuses on the depiction and significance of the Berlin Wall in the novels, from its historical role as a boundary between two worldviews, separating people, to its fall and the aftermath of it. The chronology of the novels reflects that of the Wall’s history and affects its depiction in the narratives. This geocritical study examines the fictional representation of a geographical place and the evolution of this portrayal. Simultaneously, the article argues for the use of sensorial mapping in literary analysis. Exemplifying it through the study of Hamilton’s novels, a case is made for this cartographical practice that subverts the conventions of the discipline in order to highlight emotions and impressions, making it all the more suited to literary geography and geocriticism. Maps are thus included to illustrate and reinforce the points made in this study, further challenging the boundaries between disciplines
Berlin wall · Depiction · Fall of man · First world war · German · Narrative · Literature and Cultural Memory · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Spatial and Cultural Studies
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |