The Spatial Writing Of Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance Of Loss

Kiran Desai is a young contemporary female writer who was born in India,with her life experience in Britain and the United States.Her novel The Inheritance of Loss won the Booker Prize in 2006.With the Focus on India,Britain and the United States,the novel reveals India’s ethnic conflict,the great segregation of social class,postcolonial issues and other social problem.It also reveals some Indians’ psychological problem caused by the unequal situation.So it has remarkable spatial characteristics.In the field of world literature research in China,Indian themed literature is in a relatively neglected state.This article examines the theme of the novel from three aspects: physical space,social space,and psychological space,using Lefebvre’s spatial theory,which has certain value and significance for further understanding Indian society,exploring Indian culture,and the way out for the Indian people.The thesis consists of three parts.The introduction part introduces Kiran Desai and her book The Inheritance of Loss.Based on the research status of the novel at home and abroad,this paper puts forward the research ideas and methods.At the same time,it refers to the space theory of Lefebvre and other relevant scholars.The first chapter analyzes the real landscape of India in the novel and explore the symbolic significance behind it,showing the contradictories in Indian.The difference between the image of British and American imperialism that Indians imagine and the image that Indians actually see dissolves the image of imperialism,which reveals a foreign space full of temptation and disappointment.The second chapter interprets the unequal social space in India from three aspects,the colonial culture space,the social space and family space,which investigate the profound connotations behind different landscapes in the novel,analyzing the cultural worship and class division in the society and the miserable family in such a background.The third chapter explores the mental space and the living predicament of different characters,the judge Jemubhai Popatal Patel,the Nepalese tutor Gyan who lives in India and the illegal immigrant Biju who works in the United States.It reveals that loneliness,alienation,helplessness and distress are given to the characters in the context of globalization.The conclusion part summarizes the research of this thesis.Through the perspective of spatial theory,this thesis explores the problem of postcolonial,ethnic conflict,class inequality,cultural hegemony and other issues faced by India in the novel showing the “lost” life of the Indians.It points out that in order to get rid of this dilemma,India should be rooted in its own excellent tradition,and the Indians should return to their true selves.At the same time,it reveals the writer Kiran Desai’s worries and hopes for her motherland.She hopes that Indian immigrants can find their way out.