Christian Schulz 
The Interplay of Death Drive and Heterotopian Garden Space in ‘The Country of the Blind’ by H. G. Wells 

Essay from the year 2018 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies – Literature, grade: 2.0, University of Zurich (English Department), course: M. A. Methods and Theory: Reading Critical Theories, language: English, abstract: The essay analyses the interplay of death drive and heterotopian garden space in H. G. Wells’ ‘The Country of the Blind’.

In the essay, the author shows how the juxtaposition of Edenic/non-Edenic and utopian/non-utopian emplacements in the heterotopical garden space of the blind creates an ambiguity in which the protagonist Nunez finds himself unable both to mirror this ambiguity in himself and to live out his death drive fantasies on others.

H. G. Wells’ short story ‘The Country of the Blind’ acts as a prime example onto which to transfer the ambivalent understanding of heterotopian studies. In this story from 1904, the reader is presented an interplay between the protagonist Nunez clinging to his death drive fantasies and the semi-mythical place of the country of the blind.