In Quest Of The Self: A Study Of Anita Brookner’s Look At Me From The Perspective Of Spatial Criticism

Anita Brookner was an established contemporary British writer and art historian.She began her writing career in 1953,and insisted on writing one novel annually.Altogether she had 25 works in total.Hotel du Lac(1984)earned her the highest honor of British novel— Booker Prize.Most of Brookner’s novels are arguably said to have autobiographical nature.She was good at depicting the inner struggle and desires of those single,independent,and intelligent middle-class women.Most of her protagonists are decently provided,good in health,but because of the oppression of family background and living environment,they are suffocated in their loneliness,and long for perfect love and marriage.However,in the end,most of them will choose to return to their real selves.The heroine Frances Hinton in Look at Me is a representative of Brookner’s characters.The whole book is a journey of Frances’ s self-quest.Throughout the journey,she constantly looks back and searches for her real self.Finally she makes the decision to return to her real self.The author notes that Frances’ s living spaces exert immense impact on her thoughts and actions,so this thesis attempts to use Henri Lefebvre’s space theory to make a detailed analysis of Frances’ s journey of self-quest in her physical,social and mental spaces.In the late 20 th century,with the development of capitalism,the western academia welcomes a phenomenon of “spatial turn”.As an emerging critical theory,spatial criticism is still marching forward.This thesis intends to make its own contribution to the practice of the combination of space theory and literary analysis.French social theorists Henri Lefebvre and Michel Foucault were the founders of space theories.They pay close attention to the social and cultural meanings within spaces.They believe that space is a place where various social forces interweave together.Therefore,this thesis attempts to apply Henri Lefebvre’s triad space theory to analyze the meanings of spaces Brookner constructed in the novel Look at Me,hoping to deepen the research of Brookner’s works from the perspective of spatial criticism.After a detailed analysis of the physical,social and mental spaces of Frances’ s life,the author finds that Frances has been searching for her true self in these spaces from many aspects.Her fixed living and working spaces,such as her house in Maida Vale,the library and the parks,streets and museums in London,reveal a life which is filledwith boredom and silence.Therefore,she strongly desires to escape from all that;after being unexpectedly invited by Alix,Frances’ s social spaces become more colorful.However,since she cannot bear the pain brought by the complex social rules,she chooses to get out from those social spaces;Frances has always been thinking in her mental spaces,and these thoughts increase her knowledge of herself and reality.In the journey of self-quest,pain and joy are mixed together,but in the end Frances chooses to write,embrace solitude,and accept her real self.Through the analysis of Frances’ s journey of self-quest in her physical,social and mental spaces,the author hopes to help the readers to have a better understanding of Brookner’s work Look at Me,and also hopes that this thesis can make its contribution to the application of spatial criticism to literature analysis.