A Spatial Narrative Study Of Kerouac’s On The Road

On the Road is one of Kerouac’s representative works.The naming of it has dual dimensions of time and space.In terms of time,"on the road" is ongoing,and in terms of space,"on the road" is infinite and open.This paper provides a new perspective for the study of the artistic skills of space-time interaction,human-social interaction,physical experience and psychological feeling interaction in On the Road from the dual dimensions of "On the Road" and the perspective of spatial narratology,which is different from previous studies.The paper is divided into three chapters.The introduction mainly elaborates the feasibility,significance and value of the study of On the Road from the perspective of spatial narrative,including the current research situation of On the Road,the theoretical domain of spatial narrative,the relationship between the perspective of spatial narrative and On the Road,the research ideas and methods,and summarizes the characteristics and innovations of the study.The first chapter mainly explores the reappearance of social reality in geographical space.The narrative of geographical space has a certain impact on the writing characteristics of the novel and the spiritual pursuit of the characters.Scattered perspective,horizontal intake: a large number of geographical nouns are constantly appearing in the novel,forming the compression and interruption of the narrative time,which makes the narrative fragmental,thus the social reality in the regional space can be reflected objectively;multi-focus,in-depth excavation: the continuous transformation of geographical space enables the changes of the narrative perspective possibly.The geographical features and social customs of the different nationalities in the United States and Mexico can be vividly presented.Different cultural psychology and national identity carried by different geographies reveal the cultural dilemma of the characters’ pursuit of spiritual freedom in space transformation.The second chapter mainly discusses the reflection of social life in psychological space.Psychological space profoundly reveals the inner contradiction of characters,the conflict between reality and ideal.The inner contradiction and conflict of characters are revealed through the narration of sensory experience and transcendental experience.The body affects the mind with each other: the novel takes the sensory experience of personality and jazz music as the ports for the psychological display of the characters.The characters are constantly frustrated in society,and they employ sensory experience as a way to seek spiritual freedom,so as to realize the two-way interaction between physical experience and psychological feeling.Dreams andreality interlace,illusions and actuality alternate: confronted with the powerful social inertia forces,the characters in the novel are constantly suppressed.They can only transcend the realistic predicament through dreams and illusions,thus making the novel have a distinct transcendental color and realizing the mutual relationship between the dream space and the real space.The third chapter mainly discusses the problem of traversing historical space and time in text space.Bible and traditional European literary elements are widely used in the novel,showing inclusive features in the expression of the novel’s intention and the extension of the its connotation,thus realizing the connection between traditional elements and modern time and space;the narrative structure of the novel is based on the relative closure of geographical space in the eastern and western parts of the United States(starting from the east,going to the west,finally returning to the east),with five trips as its chapters.The basis of node distribution shows a circular structure type,showing the beauty of circle and balance as a whole.This circular narrative structure coincides with the trajectory of the spiritual pursuit of the characters(on the road,failure,on the road).It makes the text space a harmony of connotation,and forms the space-time interaction between the beauty of art and the sadness of spirit.On the Road is a typical work of spatial narratology.The geographical space,psychological space and text space of the novel are highly integrated,which makes the novel achieve great achievements in Ideological and artistic aesthetics.The openness of geographical space is the basis of narrative layout and plot promotion,while psychological space and text space show spiritual exploration on the road and realize the aesthetic value of the novel.