David Harvey’s Literary Criticism From The Perspective Of Urban Space

With the further development of capitalist production,the issue of space has become more and more prominent in today’s social life,and space criticism has also emerged.As one of the latest developments in contemporary western space criticism and Marxist literary criticism,David Harvey’s space criticism has its uniqueness and important value.This paper takes David Harvey’s Literary Criticism from the Perspective of Urban Space as the research object,and analyzes Harvey’s spatial criticism from two aspects:theoretical construction and critical practice.First of all,based on Lefebvre’s spatial ternary dialectics,which consists of physical space practice,representations of space and representational spaces,Harvey’s understanding of the relationship between urban space and literature is theoretically constructed and analyzed.On the one hand,urban space constructs representations of space and representational spaces through the medium of spatial experience.On the other hand,representations of space and representational spaces as well as Aesthetic theory can also reshape urban space.Secondly,this paper analyzes Harvey’s criticism of Balzac and Baudelaire and their works which important writing theme is the urban space of Paris in the 19th century,based on Harvey’s practice of spatial criticism.In his criticism of Balzac,Harvey mainly revealed the modern urban experience in his works and the economic,political,moral and cultural logic behind it;while in his criticism of Baudelaire,Harvey focuses on the analysis of the modern urban landscape in his works and the impact of the landscape on the psychology and experience of urban residents.Thirdly,on the basis of theoretical construction and practical analysis of Harvey’s literary criticism,this paper makes further understanding and thinking of Harvey’s spatial criticism.On the one hand,different from the common aesthetic or cultural path of western spatial criticism,Harvey’s spatial criticism has dual dimensions of literary aesthetics and social history,so his understanding of space is more comprehensive and in-depth.On the other hand,compared with Marxist literary criticism,Harvey’s spatial criticism is not only a return to the critical path of political economy,but also endowed the spatial dimension with aesthetic significance under the problem domain of Marxist literary criticism.Thus,Harvey’s spatial criticism also provides inspiration for the contemporary development of Marxist literary criticism.In general,Harvey constructed his meta-theory of literature with space as the starting point.He also combines the theoretical construction with the specific literary criticism practice to form a research idea of the trinity of space,literature and history.With Marxism as the theoretical resources,it has not only realized the development of spatial criticism,but also realized the contemporary development of Marxist literary criticism,thus highlighting the unique value and important significance of spatial dimension for literary research.