City Heterotopia In Comparative Literature

This dissertation aims to construct a research model of city heterotopia in comparative literature,mainly with the help of the theories about Imagologie,Heterotopia,City Culture and Post-Colonialism.It focuses on the configurative mechanism and the research category of city heterotopia,by analyzing Old Peking's and Old Shanghai's image in Western literature,especially in English novels.The period of Old Peking and Old Shanghai is delimited to the first half of the 20th century.Besides the introduction and the conclusion,this dissertation is divided into six chapters,with the first three on theoretical exposition,and the last three on case study.The first chapter discusses the evolution of the theory of city heterotopia.In comparative literature Imagologie often uses utopia to illustrate foreign lands,but utopia refers to a place which does not exist in reality.Comparatively speaking, heterotopia is the "other" space which truly exists,and is different from the "self" space.In addition,human spatial experience is not homogeneous,but varies with different regions and cities,and therefore the traditional research on national images unavoidably has many flaws.Considering the city is one of heterotopia's representative forms,Imagologie should expand its theory,broaden its scope of research,and take the study of city heterotopia(the literay image of a foreign city) as a breakthrough.The second chapter elaborates on the configurative mechanism of city heterotopia.It includes three parts:expectation horizon,in-person experience and text representaion.Generally speaking,people comprehend a foreign city maily indirectly through materials such as texts and pictures.This comprehension is ofen deeply influenced by their cultural environment and collective imagination.However,a writer experiences a city heterotopia directly by himself,and he observes the hetero-cultural elements of the city by roaming in the street and viewing the cityscape. In the stage of textual representation,the writor often shows his obvious tendency when describing the foreign city in the light of "intercityship".The third chapter analyzes the research category of city heterotopia,which includes three aspects:spirit,space and resident.The spiritual aspect is central part, and it is displayed through the spatial and residential aspects.The spirit aspect can be divided into three essential features:positive,negative and neutral.The space aspect mainly refers to the scape of the foreign city and its whole spatial arrangement.The resident aspect refers to the behavior of the residents who,according to their cultural statuses,can be divided into three types:the natives,the aliens and the cultural hybrids.The fourth chapter explicates the image of Peking and of Shanghai in Western literature before the 20th century,so as to give a historical depth to the dissertation.In the age of Marco Polo,Cambaluc was considered a golden paradise on earth,which manifested the secular desire in the last period of the Middle Ages in the west.After the new sea route was discovered,many Christians took great pains to disseminate the Gospel to the "City of Hope".However,when the Enlightenment tides receded, Peking seemed to degenerate gradually into "Eastern Babylon" and the center of the dark East.On the other hand,after opening the port,Shanghai developed very quickly from a small "hybrid" to "the world's fifth largest city",and its image in western literature became more and more ambiguous,from a vital trading port to a seductive "wicked flower".The fifth chapter mainly analyzes Old Peking in English novels,while expounding its representative spiritual characteristics in the contemporary western literature.In the early 20th century,Old Peking still preserved the illusory charm of an ancient capital,and the western writers who were disillusioned in the World Wars came to Peking,trying to search for the lost spiritual homeland.Therefore,Peking became a metaphor in the western writers' mind space.In English novels,Old Peking's enchanting glamor mainly manifests through the ancient cityscape and its introverted space pattern.The urban space demonstrated a strict hierarchical system and a ubiquitous power which controlled the cross-cultural communication.In most situations,the natives of Old Peking were portrayed as simple and humble, embodying the superior quality of the ancient East;the aliens were attracted by Old Peking's urban landscape and the cultural atmosphere;the result of collision of different cultures was usually that Chinese traditional culture absorbed,restricted or defeated external Western culture.The sixth chapter mainly analyzes Old Shanghai in English novels,while elucidating its representative spiritual characteristics in the contemporary western literature.In the early 20th century,Old Shanghai was an abnormally prosperous city, regarded as "Eastern Paris","Western New York" and "adventurers' paradise".In the Chinese writers' works,Old Shanghai was a modern city,but in western literature, Shanghai was a barbarous,chaotic and uncivilized city.The English novels paid little attention to the modern cityscapes of Shanghai,such as skyscrapers.On the contrary, they focused on the messy and dirty corners,the intermixed space of the Concession and the Chinese area deemed Shanghai as a metaphor of "mosaic city".In most situations,the natives of Old Shanghai were depicted as sly and cruel;the aliens were described as adventurers,who sought fortune,pleasure and indulgenec all day;the result of the collision of different cultures was the intruding Western culture overwhelmed,eroded or defeated Chinese traditional culture.The conclusion of the dissertation points out that between different cultural systems,city heterotopia only has two basic faces:first,the culture of this city is very different from the writer's culture;second,the culture of this city culture mingles with the writer's culture,sharing many similarities.The image of Old Peking and the Old Shanghai in English novels represent respectively the two basic faces:to the western writers,as city heterotopia,Old Peking is more different and unfamiliar,Old Shanghai is more similar and familiar.