From Utopia To Heterotopia

J.G.Ballard(1930-2009),as one of the most prominent contemporary British science fiction writers,is a great master of urban disaster novels,in which he shows a deep concern for the urban ecological problems and the spiritual crisis of modern people.In his novel High-Rise(1974),Ballard,taking a modern skyscraper apartment building as the background,meticulously depicts a series of conflicts and spiritual problems that arise after the residents move in,gradually reveals how the modern civilization in the high-rise finally collapses,and deeply reflects on the problems in regard to modern people’s existential space and spiritual state as well as the crisis of humanity during the process of modern urbanization.Scholars at home and abroad have employed the psychoanalytic,feminist and metaphorical theories to analyze the spiritual world and the psychological state of the characters in this novel.However,sufficient attention has not been paid to the dynamic narrative structure of the novel and the space and class issues embedded in it.The novel,revolving around the narrative line of the high-rise degenerating from an original utopian space ideal for living to a heterotopian space of violence,deeply contemplates on a series of propositions on the relationship between space and class.This thesis,based on Foucault’s theory of space,aims to study how Ballard takes the high-rise as the background to reflect upon the problems with the urban living space in Britain’s urbanization process after World War II,as well as the influence of the stratification and struggle of classes on space,in order to comprehensively understand Ballard’s dystopian writing of the crisis of modernity in his urban disaster novels.The thesis is divided into five chapters.Chapter One mainly introduces the creative background and the writing characteristics of Ballard,and puts forward the research questions based on the literature review of Ballard and High-Rise by scholars at home and abroad.In addition,the theoretical framework of the thesis is constructed based on the related concepts of Foucault’s spatial theory.The body of the thesis is composed of three chapters.Chapter Two reflects upon the relationship between the spatial design of the high-rise and its class positioning in the novel in the context of the social problems and the urban population housing issues in Britain after the Second World War to explore the utopian vision embodied in the original design concept of the skyscraper.In light of the problems of housing destruction,population explosion,urban hustle and bustle,congestion and pollution in Britain’s post-war period,the high-rise is designed to be a modern urban building of forty floors resembling a self-sufficient “small vertical city”.It aims to attract well-educated elite groups to live in and is meant to give the homogenous class of residents the maximum degree of anonymity and freedom in a well-serviced and utopian space ideal for living.Chapter Three explores a series of conflicts and spiritual problems arising after the residents move into the high-rise,focuses on how the high-rise gradually degenerates from its initial utopian space to a space with heterotopian qualities,and reflects on the differences in the spatial power embedded in the spatial design,as well as the split of the homogeneous class brought by the unequal spatial power and the pressure from the “spatial gaze”.In the high-rise,the inequality of access to infrastructure such as elevators,parking lots,air conditioners and garbage chutes induces the residents’ competition for the spatial power and breeds a series of conflicts and animosity among the residents.The living space in the high-rise gradually has the features of a Panoptican space in Foucault’s term.The drowning of the Afghan hound further intensifies the conflict among the residents and becomes a triggering event for the further division of classes in the skyscraper.As a result,the2,000 residents form into three distinct enemy camps: the upper,middle and lower camps,gradually creating a heterotopian space as depicted by Foucault.Chapter Four reveals in depth how the high-rise eventually degenerates into a heterotopian and violent space,and reflects upon the deep-seated reasons for its transformation from an initially utopian and livable space to a heterotopian and apocalyptic space.The split of the residents’ classes in the high-rise intensifies the space plunder,turning the high-rise into a space full of conflicts where each class strives to either consolidate its class status or achieve the class ascension.Ultimately,the successful ascent of the skyscraper’s lower-level residents symbolizes the subversion of class solidification,thus forming a new spatial and class order.The high-rise is completely isolated from the outside world gradually,and its inhabitants violently unleash their irrationality in search for compensation,which transforms the high-rise from a modern civilized society to a savage-like primitive tribe in the end.Chapter Five summarizes the study and makes further reflections.In High-Rise,Ballard,through his exploration of the space and class issues,shows a series of social problems arising from Britain’s urban reconstruction process after World War II,deeply considers the relationship between the design of urban living space and the society’s stereotyped perception of class,and explores the influence of spatial design on class stratification and the counteracting effect of class on the construction of space.At the same time,Ballard,by following the main narrative line of the high-rise degenerating from the initial utopian space to the heterotopian space,deeply contemplates the spatial and ecological crisis of the urban development in the context of modern technological civilization,the spiritual pressure it brings to the modern people,and the series of moral and ethical problems as well as the crisis of humanity triggered by it.