Point of view and space in the novel The Cat that Taught Me How to Fly

This study examines the 2023 edition of the novel The Cat That Taught Me to Fly (Al-Qitt Allathi Allamani al-Tayaran) by the Jordanian author Hashem Gharaibeh. This edition represents a revision and re-examination of the political detainee experience in Jordan during the martial law era. The narrative highlights the ‘closed space’ (the prison) as a symbol of oppression and restriction, juxtaposed against the ‘open space’ (the city of Irbid and Yarmouk University), which signifies liberation and life. Consequently, the study employs Gaston Bachelard’s concepts to analyze the poetics of space and its symbolic dimensions. Methodologically, this study adopts a qualitative narratological approach grounded in spatial and point-of-view theory. It utilizes the structuralist frameworks of Tzvetan Todorov and Gaston Bachelard to analyze the interplay of narrative viewpoints and the poetics of space. These perspectives reveal an evolution in the author’s outlook regarding personal and societal changes, reflecting a re-evaluation of his previous stances toward both political authority and the Communist Party. Furthermore, the study addresses the religious and mythological references employed by Gharaibeh to reinforce his perspective. The paper concludes that the novel utilizes specific narrative techniques to re-evaluate the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’ through the interaction of narrative strategies with semantic and social structures.