Analysis On Kate's Female Image From The Perspective Of Spatial Criticism

Doris Lessing(1919-2013),a famous British writer,is known as the greatest writer after Virginia Woolf,and many of her works are well-received by readers.In 2007 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.So far,she is the oldest woman who won the Nobel Prize.Lessing is a prolific writer.Her works include novels,short stories,prose,poetry,drama and so on.Lessing has always been concerned about the survival plight of women facing and their way of seeking liberation,trying to reveal deeper psychological activities of the characters through novels.The Summer Before the Dark was published in 1973.This novel tells the story of a 45-year-old middle-aged housewife who is forced to leave home in the summer of 1973 and returns to her family after a series of summer trips.The French philosopher Henri Lefebvre's The Production of Space becomes the landmark of spatial turning in cultural research.Spatial criticism began to rise at the end of the 20 th century.It develops research direction of the text from the static time dimension to the broad and variable spatial dimension.Spatial criticism emphasizes that space is a multidimensional combination of society,individual and imagination,and it becomes the theoretical basis for analyzing the text from multiple perspectives.This paper interprets the Summer Before the Dark from the perspective of spatial criticism and analyzes the weaker sex image of the heroine Kate who is living in the patriarchal society in the social space,individual space and imaginary space respectively.By analyzing her silent and obedient image in social space,contradictory and revolted image in individual space and struggling and introspective image in imaginary space,this thesis tries to reveal the fact that for the subject of space there is no escape from the prison constructed for them by different spaces.And then it points out that middle-aged women who are living in the confined spaces should face the plight of survival bravely and confidently.This thesis is divided into six parts.The first chapter introduces the works of the writer,as well as literary review on this work,the topic of this thesis and innovation.The second chapter introduces the concept and the development of spatial criticism theory.The third chapter analyzes Kate's images in social space,a silent dedicator in her family and a victim in the male-dominated society.The fourth chapter analyzes Kate's images in the individual space,a contradictor mentally and a rebel behaviorally.The fifth chapter discusses Kate's images in the imaginary space,a struggler while watching the play and a self-rescuer in her seal dream.The sixth chapter concludes the constraints of each space on Kate and interprets Lessing's deep thinking about the living conditions and future way of middle-aged women from social space,individual space and imaginary space.