e-ISSN: 2637-0875
Journal of Language and Communication, 9(1), 60-79 (2022) ©Universiti Putra Malaysia Press
© Penerbit Universiti Putra Malaysia
RECONSTRUCTING THE GENDERED SPACES USING PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY IN
CHAN LING YAP’S SWEET OFFERINGS
Nurul Atiqah Amran
1*
, Arbaayah Ali Termizi
1
, Rosli Talif
1
, Mohammad Ewan Awang
1
Department of English, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication
Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia.
e-mail: atiqah.ariff88@gmail.com
1*
; arbaayah@upm.edu.my
1
; rtalif@upm.edu.my
1
;
ewan@upm.edu.my
1
ABSTRACT
The persistent male ideological narratives attached to psychogeography and walking still take
pivotal sides in various discussions. This essay uses the psychogeographical approach that focuses
on gender and space to prove that this masculine idea has changed otherwise. What makes the
fictional character’s movement aesthetically imperative in Chan Ling Yap’s Sweet Offerings is
the relationship with the environment both in the private and public spaces, associating walking,
seeing, and sensing with the spatial and temporal position of the narrative. The interaction between
the fictional character with her geographical environment while commencing the movement
reveals a conscious act that provides readers with a symbolic expression in this literary
representation of the period in history. This study seeks to achieve two objectives. Firstly, to
analyse the protagonist’s experiences in the private and public space that reveals issues or
situations that disrupt the very concept of masculine and feminine subjectivity in the prescriptive
social and spatial setting. Secondly, to expand the existing discussion that uses the contemporary
approach of feminist psychogeography to understand the social and spatial experience that connect
or disconnect women with a particular space. Implementing the mixed method derived from
Harlow’s Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and Bridger’s Feminist Psychogeographical
Method, this paper uncovers that Yap has portrayed a fictional female character that can take the
wanderer mode in the city. She transgresses the traditional constraints and expectations and
becomes an independent woman who resists the gendered spatial division in her private and public
domain.
Keywords: gender; urban space; city in literature, historical fiction; psychogeography.
ARTICLE INFO
Article history
Received: July 31, 2021
Accepted: March 28, 2022
Published: March 31, 2022
Volume 9 Issue 1