Redemption Under Oppression And Resistance

Twelve Years A Slave is an autobiographical novel of Solomon Northup, an African-American writer who tells his own experience of being kidnapped into a slave. It happened on the eve of American civil war in the south of America where the slave-holding states locate. The novel is written based on the historical reality of southern America, and it uncovers the darkness and inhumanity of the slavery, represents the black’s sufferings both in physical and spiritual aspects. What’s more, it depicts and unfolds the slaves’pursuit for freedom and their complex inner struggles.This thesis is based on the frame of Lefebvre’s Spatial Theory, especially the dialectical part of the theory. The thesis attempts to reveal the spatial connotation and social significance according to the dialectical theory of Levebvre’s Spatial Theory. This thesis mainly concentrates on three spaces, that is physical space, social space and psychological space. Because these three spaces correspond to the three-dimensional dialectical theory of Levebvre’s Spatial Theory respectively. In physical space, it focuses on the transference and intrusion of physical spaces to illustrate the the collapse of the physical space. In social space, based on the physical space, the oppression and the resistance comes into an intensive confrontation which makes the novel gradually reaches its climax. In psychological space, it depicts the characters’psychological changes and inner struggles which are based on the changes of physical and social aspects. Their inner struggles and redemption lead their different lives respectively.Most people make a study of the film which is adapted from this novel from the perspectives of thematic study and western culture. This thesis attempt to analyze the novel from the perspective of Lefebvre’s Spatial Theory which breaks up the traditional narration and binary opposition, emphasizes the social aspects. In traditional literary criticism, the spaces are only regards as the objective existence which plays the part of scenes or places of story development. In this way, the spaces are printed with color of geographical features. However, from the perspective of Lefebvre’s Spatial Theory, the spaces inside the literary works are endowed with the historical, cultural and social significance rather than its natural property in traditional ways. The purpose of this thesis is to uncover the implicit social significance concealed in physical spaces according to Levebvre’s Spatial Theory. Based on this novel, the thesis depicts and reveals the darkness of the slavery and the characters’ redemption through the three-dimensional space.