关键词: 文本, 空间, 权力, 新文化地理, 癌症楼, 索尔仁尼琴

Abstract:

In recent years, the new cultural geography has been widely debated by human geographers in China, which pays a lot of attention on the relations between space and power. Some French thinkers’ theories, such as Foucault and Lefebvre were introduced to Chinese academia to interpret the meaning of space. However, unlike space in the reality, little work of space in the test has been done from the view of new cultural geography in China. In addition to ‘real’ space, space in the text and its meanings are also a concern of new cultural geography. Based on the theories of new cultural geography, this article selects Russian writer Solzhenitsyn's novel ‘Cancer Ward’ as a case, and tries to explore the relations between space, text and power. Solzhenitsyn as a political criminal was sent to internal exile, and was treated in a hospital as a result of undiagnosed cancer. His experiences of staying in such a hospital became the source of Cancer Ward. This article uses the method of re-deconstruction to analyze Solzhenitsyn’s novel and to finds out the link between the text, space and powers. We conclude that the cancer ward is symbol of totalitarian system, which controls people and society by some measures, such as establishing censorship, installing propaganda tools. It is a kind of social space that shapes and is shaped by space of the different scales and disciplinary institutions. This verifies and reflects the dialectic between space and society. From the macroscopic scale, a spatial structure including the center and edge is formed along with time, which is an expression of discipline and resistance. From the micro scale, the different spatial units have different symbolic meanings in cancer ward, so it is interesting to inquire the deep meanings behind the text. The sickroom and clinic in the building have a series of rules to supervise the patients. Also, from some details in text, we can discover how the power acts on the person in the cancer ward through spatial layout. Meanwhile, the outside space of the building is very different from the inside. The walking path and exiled place are hopeful and revolting power. This includes some interactions between real and abstract space, between power and space which probably are explicit or implicit. The setting and interior layout of every spatial unit reflect explicit interactions, and the inherent relationship and power in space reflects the invisible interactions. The text plays an important role on building such a vivid, generalized and detailed ‘spatial system’, and makes us understand social space profoundly through such a small physical space—cancer ward.

Key words: text, space, power, new cultural geography, cancer ward, Solzhenitsyn