An Interpretation Of Character Dilemma In Wish You Were Here From The Perspective Of Spatial Criticism Theory

Graham Swift(1949-)is a famous contemporary British writer.His novels have been highly praised and won many awards.Wish You Were Here is Swift’s ninth novel.At that time,he was sixty-two years old.As an old serious writer,he has excellent literary attainments.In Wish You Were Here,Swift not only maintains his consistent writing style but also interprets his understanding of human life in recent historical periods from a new perspective and expression.The story begins with Ellie running away from home and ends with her returning home.The whole time span is only two hours.In addition to this core story,there is a journey that Jack has gone through in the past two days,which leads to the process of learning about Tom’s death within ten days,together with a review of Jack’s 39 year old life,as well as three generations of family and even earlier stories.It can be seen that Wish You Were Here has obvious spatial features.The thesis attempts to interpret the character dilemma in Wish You Were Here from the perspectives of physical space,social space and mental space.First of all,from the perspective of physical space,this thesis analyzes the spiritual dilemma of the characters in the novel,including the confusion about the sense of hometown and the impact on the characters’ identity.Secondly,from the perspective of social space,it analyzes the characters’ survival dilemma,including the lack of sense of security and the lack of communication among people.Finally,from the perspective of mental space,this thesis interprets the ethical dilemma of kinship and love in the novel.Lefebvre’s theory of space criticism regards physical space,social space and mental space as an organic whole,which is of great significance for exploring character dilemma in the novel.It can clearly find the fundamental loss of communication revealed in this novel.It is about humanity driven to the edge,epitomizing a perennial human dilemma.