| David Harvey constructed his urban space theory as a groundbreaking effort to explore the mechanism of capitalism,as well as the crisis facing it.Unlike other theorists,he employed the medium of modern and postmodern literature to reveal the relationship between urban space theory and literary and artistic criticism practice.David Harvey introduced the concept of space into Marx’s materialist theory,criticizing the space of capitalism from the aspects of capital accumulation and class struggle.In his urban space theory,he looked into a series of issues during the evolution of capitalist economy,including "uneven geographical development","space-time restoration",and "more flexible accumulation of capital".Then he concluded that the theoretical core of the capitalist economic system is the three circuits,and it is essentially the plundering of capital,labor,and other resources that drives capitalism forward.Meanwhile,capitalism has adopted the policy of "space-time restoration" to cope with the resulting problems,such as geographical imbalance,conflict between classes,and resource exhaustion.Citing modern and postmodern literary and artistic works,David Harvey examined the conditions of urban space and capitalist economic development that were reflected in them.Drawing on literary and artistic criticism,David Harvey analyzed the transformation of both external space relations and internal space relations experienced by Paris during its urbanization.Moreover,he extracted the image of "flaneur"(meaning a "habitual loafer")from the literary artistic works of Balzac and Baudelaire to summarize the urban space characteristics of Paris from the perspective of this social group.Finally,based on the works of writers such as Flaubert,Picasso,Eliot,David Harvey teased out the urban landscape and the mentality of urban dwellers in the modern and postmodern eras.David Harvey’s practice of literary and artistic criticism provides inspiration for the construction of Marxist literary and artistic theories in China today.First,we should embrace the urban space dimension in Marxist theory and critically absorb the ideas of David Harvey’s urban space theory,which can serve the construction of Chinese literary and artistic theories.Second,based on our national conditions and practical experiences on literary and artistic theories,the nativeness of urban space theory should be highlighted,while exploring the research paradigm of contemporary Marxist literary and artistic theories. |
