SpaceNarrativeinSisterCarrie_陈明莉

ABSTRACT

Theodore Dreiser is one of the most important writers in the literature history of America. He has 7 novels and other literature works such as short stories, autography, dramas, and political essays and so on. Sister Carrie is his first long novel and it was once considered to be immoral. In one hundred years after its publication, times are changing, and people’s opinion is being changed. The traditional critics regard Carrie as a fallen woman. But with the development of sorts of thoughts, the perspectives of study on this heroine is changing. In the eye of the critics, Carrie is considered to be a rebellious woman.

Joseph Frank is one of the most outstanding contributors to the founding of the theory of narrative space. In the 40s of the 20th century, in his essay "Spatial Form in Modern Literature", Frank presents his general conception of the spatial form for the first time which begins the theory of narrative space. And then the spatial theories developed quickly, so did the theory of space narrative. Gabriel Zoran’s Towards the Theory of Space in Narratives has constructed the model of space theory which is considered the most valuable in practical use so far. He distinguished vertically three levels (topography, Chronotope，text) which are composed in space and in horizontal direction he put sforward the units of space measurement and different spatial structures showed by kinds of combination. Lefebvre propose the concept of social space. He thinks social space includes three levels: the spatial practice, the representation of space, and the representational space.

As a representative of modernist writers, Dresser overthrows the traditional linear narrative pattern in Sister Carrie, and forms a new system of time and space. Modernist writers "try to make the readers understand their work in one moment from the space rather than the order" (Makaryk, 1993: 629). So does Dresser. His creative style tallies with spatial effect constructed by narrative space theory. The theory of narrative space plays a more and more important role in western literary criticism in the twentieth century. It relates to and influences major forms of modern criticism and theory.

This thesis will mainly use Frank’s spatial form theory, the topograpgical theory of Gabriel Zoran and Lefebvre’s social space theory to analyze Sister Carrie from four aspects: the physical space, the psychological space, the textual space and the perceptional space, Thus the thesis tries to

I

show the characteristics of the theory of narrative space and the irreplaceable role that spatial form plays in interpreting modern thinking. At the same time the author hopes to give the readers a new perspective to read Sister Carrie and Dreiser’s other works.

The thesis is divided into four chapters. Part one is a brief introduction to Dresser and his works and literature review. This part focus on the previous research and comments on Dresser and his novel Sister Carrie based on which I put forward the purpose and significance of choosing this topic.

Part two is an introduction to the space in literature from the traditional attitides towards space to the modern space theory. And the author centers on Gabriel Zoran’s topographical theory and Lefebvre’s social space theory, which are used as the theoretical background of this thesis.

Part three is the analysis of the Sister Carrie from the four aspects: physical space, psychological space, textual space and perceptional space. The analysis of the physical space Dresser constructs in the novel from the geographical and social perspectives shows the inevitability of sister Carrie’s alienation and the significance for the illustration of particular themes of the novel.; in probing the psychological space, the author focus on Carrie’s complex relationships with two men and then shows that strong psychological desire compels her to drop in the abysm of desire.

As for the textual space, the author uses Frank’s spatial forms to anlyze the images and the juxtaposed plots. Such images in the novel as the rocking-chair, window, the staring woman and the juxtaposed plots: Carrie’s love and Hurstood’s family relationship paly very important part in illustrating the theme of alienation of this novel; finally the author explores the perceptional space established in the reader's mind by analyzing the general effect of narrative spaces.

Through the above-mentioned detailed analysis, this thesis tries to explore the narrative space in Sister Carrie and the interplay of different forms of space, which is significant in understanding the trend of space development in modern fiction and the influence of form on content. This will help deepen the understanding of the characteristics, structure, art innovation and artistic conception of Dresser's novels, and it also will be helpful for us to understand the culture connotation in Sister Carrie.

Keywords:Sister Carrie, physical space, psychological space, textual space, perceptional space

II

摘要

西奥多·德莱塞是美国文学历史上最伟大的作家之一。他一生著有7部长篇小说及其他文学著作，诸如：短篇小说，自传，戏剧，政论文等。《嘉莉妹妹》是德莱塞的第一部长篇小说，起初曾被认定是伤风败俗的作品。一百多年过去了，人们的观点也随着时间的变化而变化。传统的批评家认为嘉莉是一个堕落的女人。随着各种各样思想的发展，人们的研究视角不断变化。在批评家的眼中，嘉莉也逐渐成为一个有反叛精神的女性。

弗兰克是叙事空间理论的杰出贡献者之一。20世纪40年代，在他的论文《现代文学中的空间形式》中，弗兰克首次提出了空间形式的概念，标志着叙事空间理论的开始。紧接着，空间理论得到了快速发展，空间叙事也随之发展起来。加里布尔·左伦的《走向叙事空间理论》建构了可能是迄今为止最具有实用价值和理论高度的空间理论模型。他从纵向区分了构成空间的三个层次（地志学、时空体与文本），并在横向上提出了空间度量的单位及其各种组合所表现出的不同空间结构。列斐伏尔提出了社会空间理论。他认为社会空间包括三个层次：空间的实践，空间的表征，表征的空间。

作为现代主义的代表作家之一，德莱塞在《嘉莉妹妹》中推翻了传统的线性叙述模式，形成了一套体现时间和空间的新系统。现代主义作家试图让读者在时间上的一瞬间从空间上而不是从顺序上理解他们的作品，德莱塞亦如此。这一点与叙事空间理论形成的空间效果相吻合。叙事空间理论在20世纪的西方文学批评界中扮演着越来越重要的角色。它与现代批评理论紧密相连，并影响其发展。

本文试图运用弗兰克的空间形式理论,加里布尔的地志空间理论和列斐伏尔的社会空间理论来解读德莱塞的《嘉莉妹妹》，着重分析德莱塞在小说中营造的物理空间，心理空间，文本空间, 感知空间，从而展现叙事空间理论的特点以及空间形式对表达小说现代主义思想内容所起到的不可替代的作用。希望给读者提供一个新的阅读视角，更好地去理解德莱塞的作品。

全文共分四章，第一章对作家及其作品做了简单介绍并作了文献综述。着重介绍了前人对《嘉莉妹妹》的研究和评论，并在此基础上提出本论文选题的目的和意义。

第二章主要介绍文学中的空间叙事，从传统的对待空间的态度到现代空间理论，并着重介绍弗兰克的空间形式理论，加里布尔的地志空间理论和列斐伏尔的社会空间理论，以此作为本文的理论基础。

第三章主要从物理空间，心理空间，文本空间，感知空间来解读《嘉莉妹妹》的空间叙

III

事。通过对物理空间---地理空间和社会空间的分析，透视了嘉莉妹妹被异化的必然性，对呈现主题起到了积极作用；在探讨小说的心理空间时，作者着重分析了嘉莉妹妹和前后两个男人之间的心理纠葛，展示了强大的心理欲望迫使她坠入欲望的深渊；在考察文本空间时，作者运用了弗兰克的空间形式分析—意象和情节并置，小说中大量的意象：摇椅，窗口，凝望的女人等和两条并置的情节线索：嘉莉的爱情和赫斯特伍德的家庭关系都为展现小说的主题起到了非常重要的作用；最后探讨小说在读者心中呈现的感知空间，分析小说中的叙事空间在读者感知世界中实现的效果。

综上所述，本文试图分析《嘉莉妹妹》中的叙事空间，展现不同空间的相互作用对理解小说空间发展潮流的重要意义，以及形式对内容的巨大影响。这将加深对德莱塞小说特点、结构、意境和艺术创新的理解，也将有助于我们进一步理解《嘉莉妹妹》中的文化内涵。

关键词：嘉莉妹妹，物理空间，心理空间，文本空间，感知空间

IV

Contents

INTRODUCTION (1)

CHAPTER 1 THEODORE DREISER AND SISTER CARRIE (4)

1.1 Theodore Dreiser and His Novels (4)

1.2 Literature Review of Sister Carrie (5)

CHAPTER 2 SPACE NARRATIVE OF LITERATURE (7)

2.1 The Traditional Concepts of Space Narrative (8)

2.2 The Modern Concepts of Space Narrative (9)

2.2.1 Frank’ Spatial Form Theory (10)

2.2.2 Gabriel Zoran’s Topographic Space Theory (13)

2.2.3 Lefebvre’s Social Sapce Theory (14)

CHAPTER 3 ANALYSIS OF SISTER CARRIE (17)

3.1 The Physical Space in Sister Carrie (17)

3.1.1 The Geological Space (17)

3.1.2 The Social Space in Sister Carrie (21)

Sister Carrie (25)

in

Space

3.2 Psychological

3.2.1 Carrie and Drouet (26)

3.2.2 Carrie and Hurstwood (27)

Space (29)

Textual

3.3 The

3.3.1 The Textual Space Embodied in Juxtaposition (30)

3.3.2 Textual Space Embodied in Images (31)

3.4 The Perceptional Space of Sister Carrie (34)

3.4.1 Sister Carrie---Dreiser's “Sister” (35)

3.4.2 Hurstwood’s Decline—Dreiser’s Fear for Failure (36)

CONCLUSION (38)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (40)

BIBLIOGRAPHY (41)

本文作者在攻读硕士学位期间所发表的论文 (43)

.

V

Introduction

Theodore Dreiser (1871--1945) is one of the most important writes in the literature history of America. He has 7 novels and many other works about short stories, philosophical essays, autographical books, dramas and political writings which are referred in chapter 1. In 1944, Dreiser was awarded the Merit Medal for Fiction by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is taken as an outstanding figure in a national literary movement that replaced the observance of Victorian notions of propriety with the unflinching presentation of real life subject matter. His novels explore the new social problems that have arisen in a rapidly industrializing America.

Sister Carrie is his first long novel and the most controversial one, Sister Carrie tells the story of two characters: Carrie Meeber, an ordinary girl who rises from a low-paid wage earner to a high-paid actress, and George Hurstwood, a member of the upper middle class who falls from his comfortable lifestyle to a life on the streets. Neither Carrie nor Hurstwood becomes what he is through virtue. Their successes and failures have no moral value; this stance marks Sister Carrie as a departure from the conventional literature of the period.

Dreiser touches upon a wide range of themes and experiences in Sister Carrie, from grinding poverty to upper-middle class comfort. The novel dwells on the moment as it is experienced; the characters are plunged into the narrative without the reader being told much, if any, of their histories. Their identities are constantly subject to change, reflecting the modern American experience that had been ushered in by the developing capitalist economy. In the process of this development, thousands of rural Americans rushed to the cities to find jobs and to build themselves new lives and identities. Sister Carrie captures the excitement of that experience.

Sister Carrie is a piece of excellent works to describe city. City is a complex of contradictions, where there is the most convenient consumer life and the most comfortable material enjoyment. At the same time, there exist the life pressure, fierce competition, indifferent social relationships. People living in city experience the loneliness when they have the convenience of material life and they can not distract the sadness and empties in spirit. Life is cruel and tough; whoever wants to survive should seek a way to walk out to save them.

Troubles come along when the novel was published for the first time, mainly because of its overwhelming accumulation of factual details as well as its conflict with tradition. The novel was

1

rejected by the majority.

More than one hundred years has past since the appearance of the novel. As the time changes, the criticism of Sister Carrie is changing. In the 20th century, with the development of new theories such as feminism, consumerism, psychoanalysis, post-structuralism, Marxism, consumer culture, the critics have applied various ways to analyze Carrie. Some of them argue that Carrie has the rebellious spirit and she is a woman of new times.

In the first half of the 20th century, the critics pay much attention to the historical background and Dreiser’s biographical criticism. From 60s to 70s of the 20th century, the criticism goes to another extreme. They focus on the text itself but ignore the social background. From 80s of the 20th century to now, emerge such new theories as feminism, consumerism, psychoanalysis, post-structuralism, Marxism, and the critics provide new perspectives to analyze Sister Carrie.

With the turning of space, space narrative attracts more and more attention of the critics. Joseph Frank puts forward the notion of spatial form in his 1945 essay, which provides the crucial step toward a comprehensive theory of narrative space. According to Frank, spatial form is: “the exact complement in literature, on the level of aesthetic form, to the developments that

have taken place in the plastic arts.[...] Both contemporary art and literature have, each in

its own way, attempted to overcome the time elements involved in their structures

(Frank,1945:57).”

Frank's theory of spatial form begins the theory of narrative space, and he argues that the spatial form can be got through images, theme repetition, juxtaposition, alternating chapters and multi story. And this evokes scores of applications, replies, and extensions. Many critics discuss, amend and develop the theory of narrative space from the different perspectives and employ the theory to the writing of modern fiction. The theory of space narrative develops quickly. Many famous theorists have their own opinions and works about this theory.

Gabreil Zoran has the most complicated and the most complete discussion about the space structure in the text in his Construction of Space Narrative Theory. He strictly limits the word “space” in the spatial dimensions of the fictional world. And he uses spatial pattern to point the synchronic perspective obtained by relating the non-consistent units in the text. he divided three levels (topography, Chronotope，text) of the textual space structure. The topographical level means the static entity space. Different places have different values, customs and so on. So do People living in different places.

In The Production of Space, Henri Lefebvre puts forward the notion of "social space", which

2

fills the blank of the theory of spatial form. He considered space as a way of existence and a subjective one being related with people’s creativity. People live in geographical space, and they have relations with the others in social space.

In this thesis, based on Joseph Frank's theory, Gabreil Zoran’s theory and Henri Lefebvre’ theory of narrative space , the author tries to analyze Dresser's Sister Carrie from four different aspects: the physical space, the psychological space, the textual space and the perceptional space.

Dreiser is good at writing city. Dreiser's narrative method is natural and free from artifice. His tone is always serious never satirical or comic. Instead of winning readers with a trick of plot, he prefers to influence them with powerful narration based on large quantities of material and detailed descriptions. In the novel, Dresser describes different parts of America vividly. Different places have different characteristics. People living one place need to adjust themselves to the values of the other palces if they move here. During the process of adjustion, people have relationships with the others and follow the other’s rules. Carrie moves form one place to another, she is eager to learn from the rich people, and she wants to live a better life. According to Frank, juxpotation and images are two devices of spatial form. In Sister Carrie, a lot of images are applied in the novel, such as the rocking-chair, window, and the staring woman. Two plots are juxtaposed: Carrie’s love and Hurstood’s family relationship, which paly very important part in illustrating the theme of alienation of this novel.

The author hopes the study of narrative space in Sister Carrie will help deepen the understanding of the characteristics, structure, artistic conception, art innovation of Dresser’s novels as well as the culture connotation in the novel.

3

Chapter 1 Theodore Dreiser and Sister Carrie

1.1Theodore Dreiser and His Novels

Theodore Dreiser is one of the most important writers in the literature history of America. He is considered as an American literary pioneer, a powerful novelist and the greatest master of American realism. His influence on the American fiction of the first quarter of the 20th century is perhaps greater than any other writers.

Dreiser’s mother was from Pennsylvania Mennonite farm and father was a German Catholic immigrant. There are ten children in the family and Dreiser is the ninth. His family was large and poor. He spent his childhood in hard times and experienced his father’s joblessness and his family’s strive to seek economic stability in big industrial cities. As Donald Pizer (2007:1) puts it, “no major American author before Dreiser participated so fully in the new industrial and

urban world of America in the late nineteenth century…it was Dreiser alone how had

been hustled as a child from one small Indiana town to the next while his father struggled

to make a living and who as an adolescent and again as a young man had been plunged

into the hurly-burly of Chicago…”

Dreiser’s life and work experience, especially the experience in two big modern cities—Chicago and New York, influence his understanding of city and provide rich sources for his creation of literary works. Furthermore his experience affects his description about cities in fictions. Sister Carrie is one of those novels.

He has 7 long novels, Sister Carrie is the earliest one, which met many problems in launching but has become a world classic. At first, Sister Carrie was considered immoral, because it is a story about a fallen woman and there are a lot of sexual descriptions, however, the girl does not get any punishment for her transgression against the traditional morality. Nowadays Sister Carrie is considered to be one of the greatest novels in 20th century, in which a corner of American life has been magnified more than the real life. American critic Farrell said Dreiser was much more brilliant than the other contemporary writers, which was showed in his first novel, and there were no writers who had done as much as Dreiser did in liberating American literature.

4

After Sister Carrie, Dreiser wrote the other 6 long novels: Jennie Gerhardt (1911); The Financier (1912); The Titan (1914); The Stoic (1947); The Genius (1915); An American Tragedy (1925). At the same time, Dreiser has lots of short stories, poetry, poses, dramas, travelling books and political thesis. He produces Free and Other Stories (1918), a short story collection; a book of sketches: Twelve Men (1919); The Color of A Great City (1925); philosophical essays: Hey-Rub-A-Dub-Dub; the autobiographical book: A Hoosier Holiday (1916) and A Book About Myself (1922); and dramas: Plays of the Natural and Supernatural (1916) and The Hand of the Potter (1918). In 1927, Dreiser visited Soviet Union and published his political writing Dreiser Looks at Russia in 1928.

Although there are different characters, plots in Dreiser’s 7 novels, none of them moves far away form the subject of Sister Carrie: people’s clothing, housing, their friends and social relationship, and the movement in different places, the industrialization, the relationship between man and woman and so on. Before analyzing the space narrative in Sister Carrie, it is necessary to know the reception process of Sister Carrie.

1.2Literature Review of Sister Carrie

Sister Carrie is one of the major works and the most controversial one of Dreiser. Since its publication, troubles come along with the novel especially with the strong conflict against the tradition. Carrie is defined as a “fallen woman” by the traditional critics. The reasons why they do not like the novel mainly are sexual impropriety does not destroy Carrie’s fame but make her successful at last and that Dreiser directly reveal the ugly face of the city. In the novel, Carrie was driven by her desires and lost her purity, being a piece of cheap goods in the modern city. She made herself the mistress for Drouet and Hurstwood. Finally she became a successful actor. In A Portfolio of Sister Carrie, West says:

“The more we have discussed it…the more uncertain do we all feel about it. The

feeling had grown upon us that…the choice of your characters has been

unfortunate. …this kind of people didn’t interest me, and we find it hard to believe

they will interest the great majority of the reader. ” (West, 1981: 42)

It is obvious that Sister Carrie was unpopular and seriously attacked. 100 years has past since the appearance of the novel. As the time changes, the criticism of Sister Carrie is changing. Different

5

people have different perspectives to criticize the phenomena and evaluate the history.

This kind of change is witnessed over 20th century. Originally the critics mainly show their condemnation, but with the development of new theories such as feminism, consumerism, psychoanalysis, post-structuralism, Marxism, consumer culture, the critics have the mixed ways to study Sister Carrie. They pay much attention to the spiritual world of Carrie and argue that Carrie has the rebellious spirit and she shows another aspect of her character.

The criticism on Sister Carrie can be generally divided into three periods. The first part is the first half of the 20th century. The critics pay much attention to the historical background and Dreiser’s biographical criticism. And the limitation is that it is easy to neglect the novel itself and the complex relationship between it and the main stream consciousness. And the second period is from 60s to 70s of the 20th century. In this period, the criticism goes to another extreme. Because the criticism of Sister Carrie is mainly about structuralism. They focus on the text itself but ignore the social background. The third period is from 80s of the 20th century to now. In this period, new theories emerge such as feminism, consumerism, psychoanalysis, post-structuralism, Marxism, and they provide new perspectives to analyze Sister Carrie.

Scholars in China and abroad have analyzed this novel form many different perspectives. But few of them have paid attention to space. The characters are analyzed in one space, which often refers to the physical space. The social space has not attracted much attention.

This thesis will analyze Sister Carrie by means of space narrative. Some critics have already explored it in city space perspective. For example,Zhu Zhenwu’s Urban Immigration Sister Carrie under Ecological Ethics (2006), Li Xingni’s Two Sides of City:From the Perspective of Urban Cultural Studies(2008), Fang Cheng and Jiang Daochao’s City Space Perspective and Ideology in Dreiser’s Novels(2006) and so on. But what they lack is a systematical theory. The rising of spatial theory in 40s of the 20th century makes up the defect. This thesis will analyze the space narrative art in Sister Carrie from such different levels as natural space, psychological space, social space and textual space. Dreiser put the different natural space together to compare them, and then show the different gaps and their significance. Sister Carrie is doomed to be alienated in the social space which she lives in. The literature means the author applies in the novel, for example, jaxta-position, flashback, play an important part in shaping the characters, expressing the theme, and deepening the artistic influence.

6

Chapter 2 Space Narrative of literature

Narrative is a young subject. As an existence way of human being, it can be found everywhere. Life is synchronous, but narration is chronological, so how to master the several processes that happen in the same time? The rising of modern novels cause more and more people to pay attention to the spatial perspective of narration. The stories do not just develop in linear time, but in one space at the same time. It has been a problem for the writers to describe the space in the form of narration, to show the spatial meaning at the precondition of time.

In the late of 20th century, “spatial turn” has appeared in western literary criticism after the “language turn” and “cultural turn”. The “historical determinism”and “direct narration” which develops stories in linear time have been banished, “the space in literature” and “the literary space” gaining more and more attention. Spatiality does not just mean the application of such spatial factors as environment, scenes in the novels but the study of the new quality acquired after the disappearance of linearity and deformation of time sequence, which means the traditional narrative time sequences are disintegrated and that narrative unites are scattered and splicing and that the linear development of plots become the interlaced spatial extension. This kind of novel narration lays stress on intuitive and multi-level realistic expressive force. In 1945, Josef Frank, a professor of Princeton University, published The Spatial Forms in Modern Novels in Suwannee Review, and for the time he put forward the theory of spatial form. In his opinion, spatial form means that in the literary creation the writers change the traditional linear static narration style to the distortion of time to change the natural time process of plots development, and that in doing so, the writers can get the synchronic spatial effects which are difficult for the linear narration in the works. The literature works of modernism feature in specialty, and the writers of them “try to give the readers one moment to understand their works from the space not from the time.” (Irena: 629)“Because language processes in time, the sensory simultaneousness can not be got unless the time order is broken.”(Frank,1991:2-3)In his thesis, Frank borrowed the conception of “jaxta-position” of Paund’s image poetry to analyze the time change in the novels of Flaubert and Proust，and he thought that the spatial form is “the counterpoint of the development of molding art…cultural supplement, both of them are trying to overcome the time factors included in the structure.” “the novelists treat the object as a whole, the oneness of the object doesn’t exist in the time relationship

7

but in the spatial relationship, and the same space relationship result in the happening of spatial forms.”（Frank:1991）The spatial forms in modernism novels are come into being by the writers’ application of narration techniques, which combine the narration and aesthetics together by the application of such narration techniques as the internalization of objective space,the spatialization of time,the interlace of space, juxtaposition of space.

In the late of 20th century, the theory of space narrative developed with the “spatial turning” of critical theory. Some critics’ works have great influence on the development of the theory of space narrative, and their works provide various ways to analyze the literature.

2.1The Traditional Concepts of Space Narrative

Aristotle thinks that the purposes of tragedy are the plot and the incidents because the plot imitates action and of life. In Aristotle’s opinion, six parts must be included in a tragedy: plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, song. But he claims that in tragedy what is the least artistic is the spectacle because the spectacular effects depends less on the art of the poet than on that of the stage machinist. (Zhang, 2002: 42). The setting, subject to action and character, is only considered to be a “container” where an action happens. In Of the Three Unities of Action, Time, and Place, Corneille argues that the unity of place does not fit every kind of subject. He thinks that the scene should change between acts. What’s more, the scene should represent two particular places and these two places should not need different stage settings and both of the two should not be named (Zhang, 2002:212-213).Then it leads to the contradiction, that is, the enemies speak in the same places. In Corneille’s opinion, people can eatablish a theatrical place, which is a room contiguous to all these other apartments. In the room the character seems to be in his own room but he is presumed to enjoy the same secrecy. (Zhang, 2002: 214). Then the spectators would not notice the difference in the places when they are intent on the action (Zhang, 2002: 213). In Preface to Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson points that it did not cause Shakespeare much attention to distinct time or place because the spectators are very clear that stage is only stage and players are only players. The character’s speech can realize the illusion or the change of places. Take Twelfth Night For example, in a scene, “What country, friends, is this?” a character asks, the the other one tells him, “This is Illyria, lady.” Therefore the spectators can recognize the place by their talking. Imaginations become an important element for the space in literature. Form Aristotle to Johnson,

8

space plays a more and more important part in play. If a play involves more places, it will cover more and the plot will become more complicated. The limitation of the stage and techniques has been made up by the imagination.

Setting is an important element in literature because it is useful for the atmosphere of the works especially in long novels. Setting is considered to be social circumstances, historical time. But in traditional literature, space is the only part of setting.

2.2The Modern Concepts of Space Narrative

According to the narrative tradition including Horace and Lessing, art is fallen into two kinds: the temporal art and the spatial art. The essential property of the spatial art is its simultaneity; of the temporal art, its succession. A further distinction exists in that the spatial arts are reversible while the temporal arts are in essence irreversible. Therefore, music and literature are temporal; sculpture, painting, and architecture are spatial. Prose fiction before the 20th century is mostly temporal: characters are developed and plots unfold in time. Modernist literature in the twentieth century has unique style and shows a distinctly anti-traditional tendency. That is, to tell a tale out of chronological order. Rather than only telling a facinating story, the novelists undervaluate the plots and pursue iconographic style and deep structure. Capricious consciousness, intricate images and fragmentary life scenes replaced sequential time, causality and logicality. Modern fiction symbolizes the transition of the dominant factor from time to space in modern fiction. “Modern literature has been engaged in transmuting the time world of history into the timeless world of myth.” (Frank, 1963: 60)

In the twentieth century, the spatiality of human’s lives causes more and more attention and it influences the hermeneutics of art works and literary texts. Publication of Joseph Frank's essay "Spatial Form in Modern Literature" in 1945, establishes the basis of the theory of narrative space, and arouses the attention in literature works, which brings spatial turning in literature criticism. A tendency of spatialization appears. And the space theory developed prosperously, For example, Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception、Bachelard Gaston’s La poétique de l'epace、Henri Lefebvre’s the Production of Space and Michel Foucault’s The Other Space and so on. In the field of narrative, Seymour Chatman put forward the concepts of stories’ space and discourse space. There is a chapter in Mieke Bal’s Narratives to discuss the space. W.J.T. Mitchell published a series

9

of papers, for example，Spatial Form in Literature: Toward a General Theory、Space, Ideology, and Literary Representation and so on. Zoran Gabriel’s Towards the Theory of Space in Narratives has constructed the model of space theory which is considered the most valuable in practical use so far. He differentiated lengthways three levels (topography, Chronotope，text) which are composed in space, and breadthways put forward the units of space measurement and different spatial structures showed by kinds of combination. In the introduction of Place and Space in Modern Novels, Wesley·A. Cote discussed the relationship between time and space, the spatial turn in postmodern culture, the relationship between spatial language and narrative discourse, and proposed a kind of narrative theory based on the relationships of places. Jeffrey R. Smitten and Ann Daghistany discussed the problems between the spatial form and narrative language, narrative structure, readers’ perception and the theoretical context of spatial form. (Cheng, 2007: 11)

2.2.1 Frank’ Spatial Form Theory

In 1945, Joseph Frank published his essay on spatial form in the Sewanee Review. In his thesis "Spatial Form in Modern Literature", although an exact definition to spatial form is not given, the following lines are frequently used to define spatial form: "Spatial form is the development that human was looking for but did not know how to find. In both artistic mediums, one naturally spatial and the other naturally temporal, the evolution of aesthetic form in the twentieth century has been absolutely identical......both contemporary art and literature have, each in its own way, attempted to overcome the time elements involved in their structure”(Frank,1945:61).

People will think of Joseph Frank when they are talking about spatial form, and Joseph Frank is coined with spatial form, however, as for whether the literary form is spatial or sequential, he is not the first one to address this. In the Laokoon, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing distints the spatial nature of form in the plastic arts and the sequential, narrative nature of literary form. Joseph Frank’s essay, Spatial Form in Modern Literature begins with this. Lessing shows his disapproval of the school of pictorial poetry. In Lessing’s opinion, literature and the plastic arts are two different forms of atr, and they work through different sensuous mediums, therefore the fundamental laws which govern their creation must differ. According to Lessing, in plastic arts, the visible aspects of objects can best be juxtaposed to present in an instant of time, and the form of plastic arts is spatial. “Literature makes use of words proceeding through time and therefore must be based primarily on some form of narrative sequence.” (Frank, 1945: 223) Lessing aims to attack pictorial poetry by the

10

way of addressing the relationship between the nature of art medium and the conditions of human perceptions, that is, human being’s perceptions are different when they face different mediun. Lessing observes that the aims of the two artistic genres--pictorial poetry and allrgorical paiting, contradict with the fundamental properties of their medium, so they are doomed to fail. Lessing is the first one to conceive esthetic form form the internal aspect rather than form the external aspect, and this is the value of Lessing's argument for Frank. Inherited from the eighteenth century from the Renaissaince, the conception of esthetic form is external. External rules govern the form of a work, and the form is a technical arrangement. Lessing argues that, the form of sequential should be applied in the form of literature which is predetermined by the property of its medium. (Frank, 1945:224-226)

Frank applies Lessing's method to modern literature but he reaches a different conclusion. Frank thinks modernist literary works are spatial, such as the works of Eliot, Pound, and Joyce. Because in their works, history and narrative sequence are replaced by a sense of simultaneity and a disruption of the normal continuities. That is to say, “the reader is intended to apprehend their work spatially, in a moment of time, rather than as a sequence.” (Frank, 1945: 225) Pound’s definition of image is like this: "that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time." (Frank, 1945: 226) And Frank claims that "the distinctive quality of a poetic sensibility is its capacity to form new wholes, to fuse seemly disparate experiences into an organic unity." (Frank, 1945: 227)

Generally speaking, the narrative structure does not follow a linear sequence in a spatial novel.

Elements of time are decentralized and disconnected actions are presented seemingly simultaneously in a space in the text with the help of such techniques as juxtaposition, images, fragmentation, flashbacks, montage, and multi-plots. The writer jumps between the various levels of action and dissolves the temporal sequence. According to Joseph Frank, writers' struggle towards spatial form results in the disappearance of coherent sequence, but the novel can preserve coherent sequence within the unit of meaning and break up only the time-flow of narrative. (Frank, 1977: 232) The actions, which are juxtaposed, interplay with each other in the progress of the narrative. From the other actions juxtaposed with or separated from a single action, its meaning can be found.

In the twentieth century, spatialization enters into the fiction. And spatialization influences the structure of the language and the arrangements of narrative units. It is space rather than time that is dominant in a lot of modern literature. What Paul de Man argues about spatial in Blindness and Insight, is:

11

In describing literature, from the standpoint of the concept of modernity, as the steady

fluctuation of an entity away from and toward its own mode of being, we have constantly

stressed that this movement does not take place as an actual sequence in time; to represent it as such is merely a metaphor making a sequence out of what occurs in fact as

a synchronic juxtaposition (Kestner, 1981:101).

Modern novelists attempt to show their objects as a whole. Oneness of their objects exists not in the time relationships, but in the spatial relationships. It is this unity of spatial relationships that leads to the occurrence of spatial form. In his Spatial Form in Narrative, Jeffrey R. Smitten also mentions, spatial form in its simplest sense designates the techniques by which novelist subvert the chronological sequence inherent in narrative. And it includes not only objective features of narrative structure but also subjective processes aesthetic perception. (Smitten& Daghistany, 1981:13) Spatial form is a literary technique, and attempts to dissolve time into a world of myth, which is structurally and thematically perfefct:

The objective historical imagination [...] is transformed [...] into the mythical imagination for which historical time does not exist--the imagination that sees the

actions and events of a particular time merely as the bodying forth of eternal

prototypes. These prototypes are created by transmuting the time-world of history

into the timeless world of myth. And it is this timeless world of myth, forming the

common content of modern literature, which finds its appropriate esthetic expression

in spatial form (Chen, 2000: 10).

In Frank's opinion, space can be divided into three aspectts in the modern novels. They are physical space of the story, the textual space which contains spatial form, and perceptional space in the reader's mind. He also explains the theory of spatial form from two parts.

The first one is from the creators' point of view. In the process of creation of the language and structure of the story, they reject time and sequence, and prefer to space and structure. In twentieth century, in their novels writers unanimously dissolve time sequence and prefer to space and structure. Actions and plots spread at the same time in different layers. The spatial form in the novel has the same function as the "image" in poetry. Plots and actions go on at different levels at the same time; in order to dissolves temporal sequence to approach this simultaneity of perception, the various levels of action are cut back and forth by the creator. The time-flow of the narrative is stopped in the duration of the scene. Within the immobilized time-area, the reader fix their attention on the interplay of relationships. In the progress of the narrative, these relationships are juxtaposed

12