Abstract:
The aim of this thesis is to analyze how the spatial aspects and imagined realities of
different cultural productions highlight their characters’ developments. The primary
sources analyzed are Oualid Mouaness’s film 1982 (2019) and Nathalie Abi-Ezzi’s novel
A Girl Made of Dust (2008). The narrated events in both works take place during the
Lebanese Civil War, especially in 1982, and they tell the story of Wissam and Ruba
respectively who are child protagonists navigating their complex environments which are
their fictional spaces. The theoretical frameworks I use are Edward Soja’s theory of
Thirdspace and a combined theory of magical thinking based on different psychological
theorists such as Jean Piaget, Jacqueline Woolley, and others. The thesis also conducts a
spatial reading of both mediums that creates spatial maps that demonstrate how space is
depicted.
The Thirdspaces discussed in the thesis are a combination of the tangible and material
elements, the Firstspaces, with the mental and emotional aspects, the Secondspaces.
Hence, the Thirdspaces become a lived-in space that reflects Wissam’s and Ruba’s
developments. Moreover, magical thinking is a psychological coping mechanism that the
child protagonists use to protect themselves and comprehend the brutality of the war
around them.
This thesis explores how magical thinking remains persistent in Wissam’s Thirdspaces
showing that he remained the same throughout the film. However, Ruba gradually loses
her magical thinking in her Thirdspaces as she becomes more aware of her reality which
leads one to infer that she evolved in the novel. I argue that the Thirdspaces in 1982 and
A Girl Made of Dust highlight the child protagonists’ characters’ developments
respectively marked by Wissam’s retention and Ruba’s loss of magical thinking.
The spatial maps present further insights into both mediums and into the characters’
developments. They illustrate how Wissam and Ruba navigate their Thirdspaces and
move in different directions from one another. Wissam’s linear movement shows a zoomout
effect that suggests that the story is not focused on his development, while Ruba’s
shows a zoom-in effect that suggests a reflection towards her inwards state.
Therefore, this comparative study between the novel and film uncovers parallels and
divergences between their characters’ developments in correlation to the established
Thirdspaces and the presence as well as the absence of magical thinking elements.