A Study Of Female Identity In New Grub Street From The Perspective Of Gabriel Zoran’s Spatial Theory

George Robert Gissing is one of the most brilliant novelists of the late Victorian era and is known as the preeminent representative of the modern urban novelist.His masterpiece,New Grub Street,depicts writers who arduously made a living in London in the late-19^th century.This novel is considered the greatest novel about writers’lives in English literature.Gissing focuses on female destiny in his novels and is sympathetic to women who suffer from the sexism and patriarchal oppression.From Gabriel Zoran’s spatial theory,this paper explores female identity in New Grub Street and reveals the most appropriate survival way for women in late Victorian age from topographical space,chronotopic space,and textual space.This paper consists of six chapters.The first chapter provides a brief introduction to George Gissing and New Grub Street,literature review,and the significance and framework of this dissertation.The second chapter briefly describes the origin and development of spatial theory and focuses on Zoran’s spatial theory and its feasibility.The third chapter explores female identify in the topographical space of the novel.Through the analysis of the activity spaces of the heroine Marian,it shows her identity deficiency and dilemma under social oppression.The fourth chapter analyzes quest of female identity in the chronotopic space of the novel.On the one hand,through the synchronic study of several female characters in the novel,the different endings caused by different choices are explored.On the other hand,through diachronic study of the heroine Marian,the inner world of women represented by her can be revealed,reflecting the torment suffered by women.The fifth chapter interprets the construction of female identity in the textual space of this novel and points out that being an individual with independent consciousness is the survival way.The sixth chapter is the conclusion part.It summarizes main ideas and explores social meaning of analyzing New Grub Street from the spatial criticism.This paper analyzes New Grub Street from Zoran’s spatial theory,which provides a new perspective for domestic and foreign research and provides a reference for deep study of George Gissing’s work.