Alaa al-Aswany’s The Yacoubian Building and Elif Shafak’s The Flea Palace emerge as microcosmic representations of contemporary Egypt and Turkey, respectively, through their focus on apartment buildings and their residents. Both the Yacoubian Building of Cairo and Bonbon Palace of Istanbul, once famous for their grandeur and now in a dilapidated state, embody the social, political and economic transformation of each society not only through the depiction of diverse characters inhabiting these buildings but also with the architectural and spatial characteristics of the buildings themselves. As social hierarchies and relations are mapped onto spatial organization and architectural details, the very physicality of these buildings gains importance to comprehend the complicated, and at times tumultuous, individual and collective stories and histories. This article focuses on the uses of space and history of urban space to examine the representation of the notions of memory, nostalgia, and disillusionment within the context of these two societies. As these multi-story buildings become manifestations of the multilayered history and structure of each society, they also reveal the tensions and fragmentation in contemporary urban life and space. While both these novels, with the microcosm of buildings’ residents, strive to create a sense of collective belonging as one big family living under the same roof, their rather bleak portrayals of the buildings, nonetheless, underline a fragmented and ruptured sense of belonging and overall disenchantment, thus questioning the idea of shared destiny and the promise of common future.

中文翻译：

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Alaa al-Aswany 的 The Yacoubian Building 和 Elif Shafak 的 The Flea Palace 中的记忆空间和记忆空间

Alaa al-Aswany 的 The Yacoubian Building 和 Elif Shafak 的 The Flea Palace 通过对公寓建筑及其居民的关注，分别成为当代埃及和土耳其的缩影。开罗的雅库比亚大厦和伊斯坦布尔的邦邦宫，曾经以雄伟而闻名，如今已破败不堪，它们不仅通过描绘居住在这些建筑中的不同人物，而且通过对居住在这些建筑中的不同人物的描绘，都体现了每个社会的社会、政治和经济转型。建筑物本身的建筑和空间特征。随着社会等级和关系被映射到空间组织和建筑细节上，这些建筑的物理性对于理解复杂的、有时是动荡的、个人和集体的故事和历史变得越来越重要。本文侧重于空间的使用和城市空间的历史，以研究在这两个社会背景下记忆、怀旧和幻灭的概念的表现。随着这些多层建筑成为每个社会多层次历史和结构的体现，它们也揭示了当代城市生活和空间的紧张和分裂。虽然这两部小说都以建筑居民的缩影，力求营造一种同屋共住的大家庭的集体归属感，但它们对建筑相当黯淡的描绘，却突显出一种支离破碎的归属感和全面祛魅，从而质疑命运共同体的理念和共同未来的承诺。