ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book shows how concepts of subjectivity draw on spatial ideas and metaphors, and how the grounding or uprooting of the self is understood in terms of place. It explores the ways in which life writing is shaped by spaces, and in turn how life writing might contribute to the ways in which those spaces are imagined and engaged with. The book deals with narratives that are structured by the mobility of the protagonists and their traversing of physical spaces as well as literary texts and genres. It also shows how a focus on space, rather than time, has impacted upon the form of life writing and considers how different types of life writing have the capacity to change the ways in which spaces are imagined and used.
