Emotional Geographies: Reading a Woman Poet’s Spatial Experience through Bourdieu’s Concept of Social and Physical Space
Chapter from the book: Kırcı Çevik, N. & Buğan, M. F. (eds.) 2025. Theory, Research and Debates in Social Sciences - 3.

Baktıbek İsakov
Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University
Kanıkey Kaliyeva
Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University
Roza Abdykulova
Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University
Cıldız Çimanova
Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University

Synopsis

This article examines a poetry entitled as “I am sitting on the boulevard” (by Sagyn Akmatbekova) from the perspectives on how physical and social space intersect in a woman poet’s lyrical narrative by applying Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social and physical space. The analysis demonstrates that the poet’s settings—boulevards, gardens, buses, and autumn landscapes—function as socially coded spaces that mirror emotional states and social conditions. Natural elements such as falling leaves and migrating birds act as metaphors for social structures, while the poet’s embodied practices reveal how habitus shapes her perception of place. The poem constructs an “emotional geography” in which physical space activates memory, evokes intimacy, and materializes longing. Ultimately, the study shows how poetic space becomes a structural map of inner life, where social time and physical environment merge into a single experiential field.

How to cite this book

İsakov, B. & Kaliyeva, K. & Abdykulova, R. & Çimanova, C. (2025). Emotional Geographies: Reading a Woman Poet’s Spatial Experience through Bourdieu’s Concept of Social and Physical Space. In: Kırcı Çevik, N. & Buğan, M. F. (eds.), Theory, Research and Debates in Social Sciences - 3. Özgür Publications. DOI: https://doi.org/10.58830/ozgur.pub1146.c4748

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Published

December 29, 2025

DOI