Rickie's Awakening-A Study Of Spatial Narrative In The Longest Journey

Edward Morgan Forster(1879—1970),an eminent novelist and critic in British Edwardian period,has gained high honor in not only modern English but also world literature.The Longest Journey,published in 1907,is considered as Forster's most autobiographical work.It mainly tells a story about the protagonist,a middle-class intellectual,Rickie Elliot's self-awakening journey of spirit.Its plot develops around Cambridge University,Sawston,and Wiltshire gradually.Although there have been many studies on The Longest Journey,most of them mainly analyze it from the perspective of the ecological criticism,psychoanalysis,ethical literary criticism and so on.Just a few studies have mentioned the three typically British regional spaces: Cambridge University,Sawston,and Wiltshire.And little has been found about the studies from the perspective of spatial narrative.As a new method of literary criticism,the spatial narrative provides an explanation of the topographical space,social space,psychological space and textual space to dig into the deep meanings of the text.This thesis will explore Rickie's awakening of spirit from the perspective of Gabriel Zoran's topographical space and textual space as well as Henri Lefebvre's social space and psychological space.The aim of the research is to analyze the process of Rickie's awakening and the profound significance of the behavior after Rickie's awakening.The realistic meaning is to reveal how to balance our hearts between the ideal world and the real world,and how to live in harmony with society and the people around us.Therefore,this thesis will endeavour to put much effort in studying the spatial narrative art in The Longest Journey.This thesis is composed of six parts,the Introduction,four Chapters and Conclusion are included.The Introduction part mainly provides a concise introduction of E.M.Forster's life experiences and his work The Longest Journey,and then gives a brief literature review of the novel,and finally introduces the theoretical framework of spatial narrative.Chapter Onechiefly interprets Rickie's life experiences in Cambridge,Sawston,and Wiltshire from the perspective of topographical space.The three spaces not only give the background of the novel,but also push forward the development of the story.Rickie Elliot,the hero of the story,makes a long journey among the three places.To some extent,the journey foreshadows a psychological exploration of him.Rickie's spiritual exploration and the three places are closely intertwined in the novel.Chapter Two mainly illustrates the social space in The Longest Journey.Through studying the complicated social crises in The Longest Journey,this thesis reveals Rickie's spiritual suffering.Specifically,by analyzing the impact of British urbanization,and the penetration of imperialism and the spirit of public school,this part interprets why Rickie is trapped and how social space causes the chaos of social values and leads to social trauma.Chapter Three mainly discusses psychological space in The Longest Journey.It is divided into three small parts: the ignorant period of Rickie;the exploration period of Rickie;and the awakening period of Rickie.Through analyzing Rickie's mental phases,this part shows how psychological space affects Rickie's fate step by step.Chapter Four explores textual space in The Longest Journey.The textual space is formed by a series of writing strategies in various fictional elements.This part displays the textual space embodied in juxtaposition and in images.The juxtaposition of Rickie's life experiences and the philosophical problem “the cow is there” is related to Rickie's fate and his awakening.Moreover,the images in this novel also disclose Rickie's mental struggle.All in all,the study of the spatial narrative in The Longest Journey is helpful for the readers to understand the spiritual awakening of Rickie.Through different levels of spatial narrative,Forster not only expresses the protagonist's survival dilemma,but also exhibits his deep concern for the whole human's spiritual dilemma.With the help of the transformation of space,he promotes the development of plot,and conveys multiple themes of the novel through different levels of space,and greatly enriches the artistic connotation of The Longest Journey.