On the Writing of Shanghai Streets in Ba Jin’s Early Novels—Taking Death and Rebirth as Examples
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: 随着城市空间的拓展与理论研究的深入，空间逐渐成为各个学科关注的热点，文学研究领域也兴起了“空间转向”。空间不再仅仅作为文学研究的背景存在，而成为了文学研究的重要对象。在众多空间中，街道以其特殊的开放性，成为展示城市生活图景的媒介。巴金早期的小说《灭亡》《新生》以上海为城市背景，通过街道构建了三重空间：现代化的异质空间、繁华之下的底层空间、权力关系的博弈空间。三重空间展现了上海现代化进程中光怪陆离的城市图景，折射出巴金面对20世纪中国社会由传统向现代转型时的深层焦虑。在小说中，街道成为主人公思想转变的重要媒介，其中蕴含着作家对民族命运的深切关怀。With the expansion of urban spaces and the advancement of theoretical research, space has gradually become a focus across multiple disciplines, and the field of literary studies has also witnessed a spatial turn. Space no longer serves merely as a background for scholarly inquiry but has emerged as a significant subject of literary research. Among various spatial types, the street—with its distinctive openness—functions as a medium for depicting urban life. In Ba Jin’s early novels Death and Rebirth, which use Shanghai as their urban backdrop, streets construct a tripartite spatial framework: a heterogeneous space of modernization, a marginalized space beneath prosperity, and a contested space of power relations. This tripartite structure reveals the alienating urban landscape during Shanghai’s modernization process, reflecting Ba Jin’s profound anxiety about China’s twentieth-century transition from tradition to modernity. In these novels, the street becomes an important medium for the transformation of the protagonist’s thoughts, which contains the writer’s deep concern for the fate of the nation.
Source: Chinese Traditional Culture
Author: 文佳 李
Institution: Shanghai Normal University
Language: English
Topic: Spatial and Cultural Studies
Subfield: Geography, Planning and Development
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4412946247