Severance centers on its protagonist, Candace, a Chinese American woman who survives a global pandemic that transforms people into non-violent zombies. Through Candace’s story, readers are presented with both the ordinariness of her daily life and the haunting memories of her immigrant experience. Two primary concerns that Ma seeks to address in her work are “issues of work” and “immigrant imperative for success”. In this paper, I investigate the two crucial subjects from a spatial perspective. I argue that Candace makes a breakthrough in constructing a “Third Space” for herself, one that avoids being confined in the physical “firstspace” of capitalism or spiritual “secondspace” of an imagined utopia. Drawing on Soja’s theory, I analyze megacities such as New York, Shenzhen and Hong Kong as representatives of firstspace for Candace’s life and work, These cities are overwhelmingly capitalistic and can be understood as “worlds of things”. Candace also envisions a utopian home based on her memories of Fuzhou and the Facility in which she and other survivors have settled in an apocalyptic world, which I classify as secondspace. However, as Candace finds herself unable to thrive in either of these spatial realms, she chooses to seek and create a space for herself and her unborn daughter that offers new possibilities—what Soja terms a “contradictory and ambiguous” space, one that is both “restricting as well as liberating” (56). This “Thirdspace” therefore becomes the site of transformation, offering an alternative to the rigid confines of both firstspace and secondspace.

Homi Bhabha’s concept of hybridity and the “third space”1 foregrounds the emergence of new identities through cross-cultural exchanges but often neglects the unequal power dynamics that shape these intersections. This paper critically examines the biopolitical and epistemological violence embedded in postcolonial hybridity, particularly its implications for identity formation within hybrid spaces. Engaging with Bhabha’s theory, it interrogates the structural forces of globalization, racialization, and state-controlled measures that define and regulate these spaces. By analyzing Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire (2017) and Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced (2012), this paper argues that hybridity risks depoliticizing the lived experiences of marginalized communities and obscuring the biopolitical violence endured by postcolonial subjects under neocolonialism and global capitalism. In Home Fire, Shamsie's characters confront the complexities of British Muslim identity, grappling with Islamophobia, state surveillance, and colonial legacies. Their experiences illustrate how hybridity can obscure the mechanisms of neocolonial governance and the racialized control of bodies. Similarly, in Disgraced, Akhtar’s protagonist Amir, a Pakistani-American lawyer, contends with racial discrimination, cultural appropriation, and internalized racism, exposing the limitations of hybrid identity in resisting structural violence and exclusion. While Bhabha’s “third space” is celebrated for its potential to transcend binary oppositions, it fails to account for the biopolitics of race and power that dictate access to and conditions within this space. Rather than fostering empowerment, hybridity often conceals imperial violence and entrenched global inequalities, ultimately neutralizing decolonial struggles and perpetuating systems of control.

As an example of the literary treatment of spaces of war during the period of the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) in the city of Beirut, I have chosen Younes’s B as in Beirut (2009). According to Younes “As an Arab writer, […] I am a fighter, […] a ‘foreigner’ in the alleys of mainstream literary history” (Younes 2022, 16). Published seven years after the civil war in 1997, and set in Beirut, this novel provides an important insight into how four women (Lilian, Warda, Camilia, Maha) were able to resist, fight and survive in the same apartment building during the war. The aim of this paper is to examine how these female figures experienced this critical period of Lebanese history, as “neither totally ‘in’ nor totally ‘out’ of the war scene” (Younes 2022, 2), as “anti-hereos” (2) that ocupy an “in-between space” (2). The main questions addressed in this paper are: 1. How can the different spaces described be examined as: a) “heterotopia” according to Michel Foucault (2006)? [e.g. island: “an island in the middle of a sea filled with killer whales” (Younes 2009, 94)]; b) as creators of poetic images according to Gaston Bacherlard (2007)? [e.g. smells (Younes 2009, 45); womb (14)]; and c) as “third space of exile” according to Homi Bhabha (1994)? [e.g. “to stay there my whole life, suspended between those two places, claiming a third place that would be mine alone” (Jounes 2009, 46) ]. 2.How are the characters attached to certain objetcts that reflect their experience and “life on the verge of war”? (Younes 2022, 2) [e.g. human existence in a suitcase (Younes 2009, 1); interrupted stories (5-6); shade and roots of a walnut tree (44); new language (102)]. I intend to show that the use of different spaces and objects are a writing technique used by the author as „strategy[ies] of survival“ (Younes 2022, 4). The characters can only survive because they are located in this „in-between space“ and are emotionally attached to things. The novel gives voice to Lebanese women resistance fighters that remained in general invisible during the Lebanese civil war and therefore contributes to a greater understanding of a specific generation of women during this period of time.

Abstract

Chinese-German writers, particularly authors such as Luo Lingyuan, often inhabit the marginal space between two cultural worlds—China and Germany—living in a state that is both "Chinese and not Chinese, German and not German." This "third space," situated between two cultures and worlds, forms the foundation of their literary creation, reflecting their unique cultural identity and cross-cultural experience. Chinese-German literature not only exhibits the characteristics of the "third space" in terms of writing style and emotional content but also perfectly embodies the "third space" theory proposed by Homi K. Bhabha within its cultural concepts and narrative models. This theory emphasizes that identity is not fixed or immutable but is instead formed through the interaction and fusion of different cultures at their points of convergence, creating a new cultural identity.

For Chinese writers living in Europe, they are both influenced by Western culture while maintaining the roots of Chinese culture. This dual cultural influence makes their creations imbued with Western rationality and free-spiritedness while preserving the national sentiment and moral ethics of traditional Chinese culture. Therefore, Chinese-German writers’ literary works often transcend the expression of a single culture, creating a new cultural perspective and narrative mode through the dialogue and intertwining of Chinese and Western cultures.

From the content perspective, Luo Lingyuan’s literary works are deeply influenced by her immigrant experience, exhibiting a "transnational" literary characteristic that blends dual experiences. This feature is not only reflected in the geographical crossing but also profoundly in the collision, exchange, and fusion of Eastern and Western cultures. This cross-cultural collision endows Chinese-German literature with a unique "bridge" function, providing a medium for dialogue between different cultures while offering new perspectives on cultural identity in the context of globalization.

In Luo Lingyuan’s works, Chinese-German characters often face the clash and fusion of both Chinese and German cultures. Their identities cannot fully integrate into the German context, nor can they entirely break free from the influence of Chinese culture. For example, the new Chinese immigrant female characters in her works exhibit dual cultural characteristics—neither fitting the traditional Chinese female archetype nor resembling the typical German female personality. This cross-cultural trait makes Luo Lingyuan’s works complex within the "third space." Homi K. Bhabha’s "third space" theory argues that the writing of immigrant authors is not merely a simple juxtaposition of two cultures; instead, it creates new cultural experiences and outcomes through the intersection and collision of these cultures.

This study selects several of Luo Lingyuan’s novels and, based on the "third space" theory, systematically examines the embedded concept of the "third space" within her works. It explores how her works reflect her worldview of multicultural civilization exchange through the blending of languages, the dual cultural traits of her characters, and the portrayal of new Eastern female identities in her novels.

Keywords: Chinese-German Literature; Luo Lingyuan; "Third Space"; Linguistic Hybridity; Characterization