Spatial Politics And Identity Construction In Lisa See’s Shanghai Girls

Well-known as a promising novelist in the field of contemporary Chinese American literature,Lisa See(1955 –)is prolific in literary creation and Shanghai Girls(2009)is one of her representative works.With richly embedded historical facts and delicately literary imagination as well as comprehensive cultural connotations,it has a legitimate claim for critical attention from both domestic and overseas academia.The novel deals with the identity crisis and reconstruction of Chinese American women who live at the doubly marginalized position in the host cultures of American society and patriarchal society.The theme of Chinese American women identity transcends time and space.Their identity crisis manifests not merely in their awkward position in the crevices of race and gender,but also in the construction of space with which they reclaim the subjectivity of them and reconstruct their identity.Based on the close reading of Lisa See’s Shanghai Girls,in light of Henri Lefebvre’s“Spatial Triad”,this thesis is dedicated to investigating the intricate nexus between space and Chinese American women’s identity construction through the analysis of spatial details in the novel,hoping to enrich the thinking and research of the novel.Conducted from the following perspectives: spatial politics embodied in “spatial representation”,identity constructed in“representational space” and identity reconstructed through subversive “spatial practice”,the thesis endeavors to expatiate the spatial awareness and identity consciousness pervaded in the novel and ponder over spatial politics and identity issues in it.The first chapter explores how the dominant groups in the novel,i.e.the whites and men,incorporate their dominant ideologies into the construction of “spatial representation” and thus construct the privileged spaces of their own,i.e.“representational spaces”.Focusing on the discipline and oppression suffered by the subordinate group of Chinese American women in “representational space”,the second chapter discusses these women’s social roles and identity constructed by the whites and men,delving into the process of their identity loss.The emphasis of the last chapter is laid on Chinese American women’s subversive “spatial practices” which reconstruct various self“representational spaces”.During the process of the spatial reform,these women successfully defy against the “spatial representations” conceived by the whites and men and reconstruct their identity.Through analysis,this thesis finds that space is an ideological instrument for the whites and men to oppress and discipline Chinese American women and meanwhile is a medium and strategy for Chinese American women to defy against the oppression and discipline so as to reclaim the subjectivity of them and reconstruct their identity.On a whole,a multi-dimensional exploration of space from the perspectives of ethnicity and gender is a testament to its dynamic force and its social constructiveness,and meanwhile,is of great significance to illuminate how to reverse Chinese American women’s social positioning and help them achieve ultimate spatial dominance and identity construction.