The Research Of Cosmopolis From The Perspective Of Space Theories

Don DeLillo is regarded as one of the most outstanding novelist,and dubbed the "postmodern novelist" title. He has published more than ten novels and three plays so far. In1985, he published the white noise,which made him famous in America, and won the American literary awards-the "National Book Award" next year.This novel was hailed as the most classic and representative work of the American postmodern literature. He creatively generalizes the lives and mental outlooks of American people in the form of plane display. There are sharp criticisms and deep queries on the decadence of humanistic spirit in his novels. He didn’t simply describe American society and American life, but also show their internal conflicts and spiritual crisis with certain depth and breadth.Space is a social, cultural,geographic multi-dimensional existence, and it is also the important element that Don DeLillo used to create literature. In Don DeLillo’s text, the space environment of the hero was especially described. He often used the medium of space to reveal the "space" of the implication of the social and cultural connotation.This paper selects Don DeLillo’s Cosmopolis as the research object, uses contemporary western space theory, analyses spatial meaning of social and characters in the novel. In this novel, the space is not only the empty "container", existing as a geographical concept, but as a representation closely related with the rights, body, death.The paper is composed of introduction, main body and conclusion. In introduction, the author reviews the domestic and international studies on Cosmopolis, identifies researching methods and purposes.There are five chapters in the main body.Chapter One, according to the development of Western space theory, discussing the western western space theory, introducing the western traditional space theory and the forming and meaning of the contemporary western space theory and related literary theories. Chapter Two, from the space and power point of view,analyzing and explaining the space such as skyscrapers and car which have power metaphors. Chapter Three, analyzing the spatial culture representation of male and female characters in the novel from perspective of space and the body. Chapter Four, discussing the death of hero and rapper and their space meaning. Chapter Five, discussing the space environment with heterotopias feature such as the condemned building, theater and New york.The conclusion sums up the whole text,emphasizes the value and significance of this paper in study of Cosmopolis and points out the continuing direction being studied.