Contests over sacred space are really contests over narrative ownership

Evidence

The central issue raised by the Ground Zero Mosque controversy and echoed in the novel concerns official and unofficial codings of the space. There is a tension between planned space and the personal stories about it in which people invest. With Ground Zero, the questions are: Whose stories should win out and be preserved? Who should have the right to shape space and its meaning? — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 277

Categorization

• DEFINE: Frames the analytical question of ‘official vs unofficial codings of space’ — a transferable concept for reading narrative control.