The Topology of Subjectivity: Tracing Striated and Smooth Space in John Fowles’s The Magus

This study examines the relationship between spatial configurations and subjectivity in John Fowles’s 1966 novel, The Magus, drawing on Deleuze and Guattari’s concepts of striated and smooth space, articulated as intertwined spatial modes that foreground regulation and fluidity, respectively. Whereas spatial displacement, conceptualized by Deleuze and Guattari as deterritorialization, is widely associated with freedom and subjectivity, The Magus problematizes this assumption when Nicholas’s journey from England to the Greek island of Phraxos leads to re-striation through his involvement in Conchis’s godgame. This study argues that spatial transition from striated to smooth space does not always emerge through deterritorialization alone; instead, it is also rendered intelligible by the protagonist’s awareness of spatial striation that shapes his sense of self. By emphasizing that striation operates not only in England but also on the Greek island of Phraxos, this study challenges conventional interpretations of Greece as a locus of subjectivity in The Magus. Further, it reconsiders smooth space as a mode of perception constructed through critical awareness. On the basis of this analysis, the study departs from interpretations that view the protagonist’s journey to Greece as a quest for freedom, and contributes to spatial readings of The Magus and discussions of subjectivity within a Deleuzian-Guattarian framework.