Space as a Dynamic and Multifaceted Element:A Lefebvrian Analysis of Al-e-Ahmad’s Nefrin-e-Zamin

Nefrin-e-Zamin (The Curse of the Land) is a novel by Jalal Al-e-Ahmad about a teacher who narrates his presence in a nameless village. The novel displays the transition from tradition to modernity. It takes place during land reforms of the then government. The present article is an analysis of the novel from the perspective of Henri Lefebvre. Lefebvre challenges the alleged static features of space and introduces it as vibrant and multi-layered. From this stance, the village is an active and dynamic space redefined in the course of the story. The teacher’s entry into the village, as a stranger, becomes a means to depict the multifaceted nature of the village. Lefebvre’s three-part dialectic, comprising the teacher’s perceived, conceived, and lived experiences in the village – represented in spatial practice, representations of space, and representational spaces – are investigated in this study. The teacher’s visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile perceptions of the village space are studied in detail. The correspondence or discrepancy of the teacher’s mental conception and his lived social experience in the village are discussed next in this paper. The fragmentation of the homogeneous space of the village and its hierarchization to exercise the power of the ruling class of the village are also investigated. Finally, the paper looks into the right of the villagers and strangers to the city and its two subcategories – the right to participate and the right to occupy. The teacher, the steward, and the painter from Shurab are the strangers in the village whose right to the city is important. From Lefebvre’s viewpoint, the village is not a neutral and passive space; rather a dynamic and multifaceted space that has significance and undergoes change and reinterpretations.