A Study Of Aphasia In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest From The Perspective Of Space Theory

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the masterpiece of Ken Kesey,an outstanding American novelist in the twentieth century.It is a novel about mental hospital and aphasia.This thesis mainly applies Henry Lefebvre's and Michel Foucault's space theories to study the relationship between aphasia and space in this novel.Based on Lefebvre's theory of space production and Foucault's power space theory,this thesis analyzes the aphasia of “mad people” in this novel from three aspects.Firstly,it explores the typical spaces in the mental hospital and the symptoms of their aphasia in these spaces,which are summarized as meaningless talking,perpetual silence,forced talking and inability to talk caused by so-called treatment.Secondly,it studies the lively spaces reconstructed by “mad people” and the cure of their aphasia in these spaces.Then,it further investigates aphasia and resistance of “mad people” in the power space where the“mad people” are disciplined and lose their voices,but in order to speak and pursue freedom or extrication,they chose to commit suicide,to challenge the authority at the risk of lobotomy,or to flee the hospital.It is found that there are diverse typical spaces in the mental hospital and the so-called aphasia is the result of adapting to the different spaces.However,lively spaces have been reconstructed to cure aphasia.In terms of power space,the mental hospital infiltrated by power is an outcome of authority and discipline,where the “mad people”suffer from aphasia.Nevertheless,by rebelling against the authority,the “mad people”gain their voices and freedom to some extent.