Spatial Narrative In Fortress Besieged

Published in 1946, Fortress Besieged written by Qian Zhongshu is a profound and intriguing novel, which is also regarded as a masterpiece of modern China. With the main clue of the protagonist Fang Hongjian’s life after coming back from abroad, the novel depicts the living conditions and mindset of the intelligentsia in wartime. Via the novel Qian Zhongshu expresses a ubiquitous state of “fortress besieged” in one’s life and unveil the predicament confronting the whole modern civilization and modern life. Beyond the traditional linear description, the story carries forward with change from one space to another, which implies obvious spatial characteristic. In the framework of western spatial narrative, this article on the basis of previous instructive study on Fortress Besieged tries to give an insight into the author concerned with human beings’ existence with a meticulous analysis of the spatial types, the function of spatial images and narrative device.This thesis is composed of an introduction, three main parts and a conclusion. The introduction displays briefly the previous study about the Fortress Besieged as well as the spatial theories at home and abroad, ending with the meaning and methodology of this article. The first chapter focuses on the three types of narrative space, which interprets the protagonist is on the go from the perspective of the geological space, the reason that the protagonist struggles to settle down in social life and the depressed self-space of female characters from the perspective of cultural and power space, the deep inner experience of the protagonist from the perspective of psychological space in the novel; the second chapter illustrates the function and meaning of salon-like spatial images, road-like spatial images and fortress besieged spatial images to construct the novel, the first of which is its intensive depiction of characters with carrying the plot forward while the other is metaphoric meaning implying the eternal cycle of in-out of fortress besieged; the third chapter centers on the spatial narrative device with a respective analysis of the choice of the space, the device of the spatial representation and the relationship between time and space. The conclusion summarizes the argument in this thesis revealing the author’s insight into the fate of human beings and revelation of the tragic dilemma in one’s life.