JOSUGA: JOS JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES

This paper examines displacement and urban space in Lisa Braxton’s The Talking Drum and Tommy Orange’s There There to illustrate how the urban space evolves through a process of displacement. This evolution is expressed with terms like urban development, gentrification, urban renewal, etc. Using the poetics of geocriticism, the study proceeds on the assumption that urban spaces are at once social, cultural, physical, and discursive. It also investigates how urban spaces function as sites of spatial tension, aesthetic representation, and displacement in contemporary literature. The multifocal, stratigraphic, and polysensorial approaches of Geocriticism allow for an interdisciplinary exploration of space and the relationship between identity, belonging, and marginality. The paper argues that urban spaces in the selected texts embody contradictions that simultaneously offer opportunities for growth and conditions for exclusion. Thus, displacement, whether physical, psychological, or socio-cultural, is revealed as an outcome of urban evolution and is often driven by capitalist, political, and social forces. Characters in the texts experience dislocation due to gentrification, immigration policies, and identity crises. These suggest that the urban space is not inherently inclusive. Rather, it is contested, dynamic, and oppressive. The study highlights how each narrative uses multifocalisation and spatial metaphors to interrogate issues of privilege, access, and power. Urban spaces such as Oakland and Petit Africa emerge as spaces where identity is continuously negotiated and subverted. The urban condition, as depicted in the texts, aligns with postmodern concerns of fragmentation, heterogeneity, and existential ambiguity. Ultimately, the paper concludes that the urban space is both a product and a producer of social relations, and that displacement within it reflects the broader struggles over space, belonging, and survival. The study thus contributes to spatial literary criticism by demonstrating how literature participates in the ethical and aesthetic production of space, illuminating the lived realities of those navigating complex urban geographies. 

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