The Production of Space in Colson Whitehead’s “Sag Harbor” and Edith Wharton’s “Summer”

At first glance, Edith Wharton’s 1917 novella Summer and Colson Whitehead’s 2009 novel Sag Harbor do not have much in common. Not only were they written almost a century apart, but the protagonist of Wharton’s text is a young woman while the protagonist of Whitehead’s book is a young man. Additionally, Summer takes place in a fictional New England countryside village, whereas the setting of Sag Harbor is the Long Island coastal town that lends the text its name. However, they both take place ...