Walking in Fantasy: Smooth Space, the Nomad, and the Fairy Tale in Caitriona Lally’s Eggshells

Abstract

Based on the notion of nomad, a concept taken from Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s theory on the Smooth Space, in this article I analyze the representation of Vivian Lawlor, protagonist of Catriona Lally’s novel Eggshells (2014), by means of her walks through Dublin. While this city works as the counterpoint to the Smooth Space—i. e., the Striated Space—I propose that Vivian, given her manner of being in and for space (Deleuze y Guattari), embodies the figure of the nomad as she reterritorializes it. On a diegetic level, this middle-aged unemployed woman, who lives on welfare and does not take care of her appearance, dotes the Irish capital with another layer of meaning. She does so by believing that she is a changeling¾a fairy in the folkloric tradition of the country¾and, therefore, by actively walking through the city looking for portals that will transport her to her alleged place of origin. Vivian is certain that she is a magical entity due to the corporeal and emotional violence that her parents exerted upon her as a child. Thus, as she strolls, she is also taking a stance regarding her identity as the Other¾an action that has an impact on an extradiegetic level. In other words, Vivian’s walks through Dublin are not only literal, but also metaphorical: they become a confrontation of certain standards of femininity, which for the purpose of this article are representative of the Striated Space. For this analysis, I study Lally’s appropriation of the fundamental characteristics of the fairy tale because the fantastical element fosters the transformation of the protagonist and, therefore, grounds her condition as a nomad.