Space in literature

[Duckling Plain]

I'm desperately looking for novels where space figures as an important aspect in some sense or other. Thinking in particular of contemporary /20th century writing.
Anyone who can help me? Any suggestions?

[The Comedian]

Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five comes to mind.

[PabloQ]

Not exactly sure how you are looking at it, but The Throne of Saturn by Allen Drury is about the politics of sending a mission to Mars. It was written in the late 60s/ early 70s. Also, there's Contact by Carl Sagan. If you are looking for science fiction with space as a central theme, I'd go with Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov or Robert Heinlein.

[Duckling Plain]

Actually, I was thinking of novels like Danielewski's House of Leaves - where some vast space hides behind a closet door in a common building. They send "explorations" in there and the people do not show up for a couple of days. A critic (Marie-Laure Ryan) writes that "postmodern literature conceptualizes space in terms of perpetual movement, blind navigation, being lost in the not-always-so-funhouse, a self-transforming labyrinth, parallel and embedded universes..." - I am looking for novels that support such a claim, or maybe challenge the way we habitually perceive space, or show the interconnectedness of space and the experiencing subject.
Has anyone stumbled on a "horror vacui" like the one we find in House of Leaves? Could also be an older text. Thanks for your help.

[bounty]

hi duckling---ive really enjoyed the anne mccaffery dragonriders of pern series. ive not read them all but the element the riders (and the dragons) battle is a thing called "thread" and thread comes from another planet (and therefore across space). the dragons can also go to a place called "between" which seems to be a sort of interdimensional space that exists between two places.

that said---i have to ask---i took "space" to mean outer space. or do you rather mean some sort of geographic space?

[mono]

Certainly not 20th century, but I recommend a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaall," a story written in the 1800's in which Poe ironically describes the precise wind currents, air quality, and the moon's consistency with accuracy, not yet discovered until science reached, roughly, the 1960's.
Good luck! :)

[amarna]

Measuring the World, 2005, by Daniel Kehlmann.

[Tsuyoiko]

Actually, I was thinking of novels like Danielewski's House of Leaves - where some vast space hides behind a closet door in a common building.

The Chronicles of Narnia?

[billl]

this isn't a strong contender, maybe but:

News of a Kidnapping, by Gabriel Garcia Marquéz, contains (true-life) scenes in which people are blindfolded and transported uncertain distances...

[amarna]

The diaries of Christopher Columbus and Marco Polo. And perhaps Heart of Darkness by Conrad, where the spatial journey is a metaphor for a travel into the dark side of human nature.

[sixsmith]

The New York Trilogy - Paul Auster

[TheFifthElement]

The Raw Shark Texts - Steven Hall

[Jozanny]

Duckling:

Welcome to the forum. I have thought about your question, and I was going to recommend Solis, which I haven't read, but then wondered if it does what you're looking for. You might consider Tommaso Landolfi, An Autumn Story (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommaso_Landolfi), more surrealist than modernist, but the work does deal with psychological constriction and expansion.

Less categorical, but I am going to suggest it anyway, is Twain's NO.44, The Mysterious Stranger; it is closer to being apocryphal literature rather than satire, Twain's take on infinity, as it were.

Good luck.

[The Comedian]

You may also want to investigate the graphic novel, Watchmen -- part of the action in it takes place on Mars.

[Tsuyoiko]

I just remember Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott. I'm not sure it's the kind of thing you have in mind, but it's a novella exploring the concept of dimensions, so it is about space in that sense. It slightly older than you want too.

[billl]

whoa, yeah, Flatland is a great match, apart from the date.

[TurquoiseSunset]

Definitely Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein.

Here's Amazon's product description... (http://www.amazon.com/Stranger-Strange-Land-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0441788386/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245348196&sr=1-1)

[Duckling Plain]

Thanks for your answers. It's a rather 'extensive' topic, I know :)
Will have a look into some of your suggestions. Maybe they help on. Thanks.