A quest for third space in paul bowles's “by the water” (1946)‎, “the scorpion” (1948)‎ and “tea on the mountain” (1950)‎

Abstract EN

This article analyzes space in the short stories “By the Water” (1946), “The Scorpion” (1948) and “Tea on the Mountain” (1950), written by the American travel writer Paul Bowles.

The latter's short fiction is a product of his travel and expatriation in North Africa, mainly Morocco where he chose to settle from 1947 until his death in 1999.

Tangier became an 'inhabited space' and refuge for him as it was the case of many disillusioned western writers who fled the American mechanized environment after World War II.

The stories depict American characters who look for integration in another space.

Though they undergo a kind of self dilemma between rejection and integration, they finally succeed to settle in what Edward Soja calls 'Thirdspace' after incorporation with the natives.

This cohabitation is also the result of exploring others' intimate spaces as it is explained by Gaston Bachelard in The Poetics of Space (1958).

Bowles's stories portray a kind of space that stimulates inclusion rather than exclusion, and this is what contradicts previous criticism that used to associate Bowles's spaces with Orientalism.