A Study On The Spatial Narrative Of Eileen Chang’s Works

Eileen Chang’s collection of novels centered on Legend is mainly set in Shanghai in the 1940 s.With the modern development of the city and the special background of wartime,the traditional linear time is challenged,and people’s spatial experience is extremely strong.This also determines that the expression of spatial scene and spatiality in Legend is more obvious.Time and space are interdependent in the novel style,and the long-term attention to time obscures the value of space.It was not until the mid-20 th century that the topic of space gradually became a prominent study.Under the lens of spatial narrative theory,this paper interprets the social space,concrete physical space form and formal space of Legend according to historical materials and close reading of texts.The configuration of Shanghai’s modern urban form and the social space of Shanghai’s civil society as the background of the characters’ actions in Legend.The emergence of modern urban space has influenced modern people’s communication methods and thinking patterns,and the diversity of Shanghai civil society has also led to the heterogeneity of space;The specific narrative space in Legend can be divided into apartment,mansion,street and "upstairs",and these four physical spaces have different narrative functions and meanings.In terms of formal space,that is,the organization of various elements of the novel,the spatial narrative of Legend is embodied in juxtaposition structure,ring structure and cobweb structure.On the value dimension of the spatial narrative in Legend,this paper intends to discuss it from three angles.First of all,in the choice of space,the inner room space of Legend symbolizes that women are still in an unequal gender space and expresses Eileen Chang’s thinking on women’s social problems.Secondly,in terms of spatial nature,Eileen Chang chose the living space of vulgar citizens and the space of articles related to women,reflecting the obvious characteristics of negative writing,in order to resist the positive writing in the mainstream cultural context at that time;Finally,in narrative form,Legend is also exploratory.With the fragmented space and the psychological space dominated by characters’ emotions,it shows her exploration of the life state of wartime urbanites,reveals the "disconsolate threat" and general crisis in life,and also expresses her creative attitude of "looking for ordinary people in legends and looking for legends among ordinary people".