The Construction And Imagination Of Space

The thesis is a study of the construction process of Shanghai Women and their daily life in 1920s and 1930s, with a background of a larger historical and cultural context. Focused on how "women" and "women life" come into being during that period, the thesis explores the expression and the imagination of feminine experience.In 1920s and 1930s, women's experiences have a lot to do with their living and related space structures. With the overwhelming emergence of new architectures, a new concept and a new experience of daily life come into being and strongly influence the women. By reorganizing the living world of the women, they reorganize the concept and the imagination of the women's daily life. Hence the thesis tries to demonstrate that the daily nature of the modern world is deeply rooted in the space structure of Shanghai in 1920s and 1930s, as well as in the subjectivity of the female.Though peaceful daily life sometimes seems to be motionless, it is always in the rationalization course of adjustment and compromise. Or in other words, daily life has a conformity function. In this thesis, the contradictions and transformations in the process of daily life construction are emphasized. By paying special attention to the architectures in Shanghai concessions in 1920s and 1930s, like say the girls' schools, residences, department stores and ballrooms, the thesis discusses the significance and the influence of these places. These architectures not only change the geographical map of Shanghai, but also greatly affect people's daily life, especially that of the women's. Of course, women themselves take an active role in the new space, and therefore their influence should be seriously studied. As a conclusion, the thesis puts forward that "women"is socially and culturally constructed, which should be taken as a historical being instead of being taken as a natural being. In 1920s and 1930s, the concept of women has undergone a huge modification along with the restructure of the modern Shanghai. Thus the concept of "women" is reconstructed.Based on the above study, the thesis takes the view that one of the most significant change of the space leads to women's going back to the family, And here the "family" is used as a space that experiences fresh plotting. Activities like sociality, consumption and home economics take place in this space, which consequently make the family world a place for "daily life" . In this way, the traditional family space is reformed in nature and women play a significant roJe in this reforming process. As the object of social mobilization, womenthemselves react and oppugn against this kind of process. In those amazing female images that appear in stories with a shanghai background, a tension between the daily life space and the female subjectivity can be found easily. To sum up, when Shanghai is undergoing new space partition in 1920s and 1930s, the daily life space focused on domesticity is solidified. And meanwhile, the life style and the experience of modern women are thus constructed and shaped.