《向北方》中的压抑空间及都市人困境表征探析

The Urban Depressing Spaces and Predicaments of City Dwellers in To the North

伊丽莎白·鲍恩在小说《向北方》中建构了流动、多变的都市压抑空间,塑造了两战期间穿梭于伦敦大都会的人物群体,展现了他们错位、无根的生存状态,深切关照人物内心。本文借鉴都市空间理论,从都市流动空间和静止空间入手,探究现代生活的流动性、片段性和静止性等特征,揭示小说中空间的压抑本质和人物无根无家、自我消解的困境,论证了都市压抑空间是对都市人困境的隐喻表征。本研究为小说人物困境解读提供了一种动态空间视角,在困境主题解读和空间元素之间建立关联,揭示鲍恩作品的空间艺术和审美。

Elizabeth Bowen presents a fluid,depressing urban space in her novel To the North.She demonstrates a community of city dwellers travelling through the interwar London space and their predicaments of dislocation.With an employment of urban theories and a perspective of urban space in mobility and stillness,the study explores the fluidity and fragmentation of modern life and the rootlessness,spiritual stagnation and self-dissolution of modern city dwellers.It argues that the disorienting urban space is the metaphorical representation of the predicaments of the city dwellers.By building a correlation between thematic interpretations and spatial elements,this study provides a dynamic perspective in exploring the spatial aesthetics of Bowen’s works.