Abstract
This thesis develops an interpretive methodology for reading modern urban novels as a means of engaging with the spatial, temporal, and experiential dimensions of city life. It addresses four research questions concerning the interpretive potential of the complete narrative (research question 1), character experience and perception (research question 2), representations of temporality (research question 3), and the juxtaposition of literary narrative with historical visual documents and textual documents (research question 4). Through these investigations, the thesis establishes a methodology that integrates narrative analysis, character experience and perception analysis, spatial and temporal analysis, and historical contextualisation.Focusing on Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925) and Rickshaw by Lao She (1937), this thesis examines how the two novels depict the urban environment as shaped by movement, memory, and the social conditions of their time. Although differing in structure, historical setting, and cultural context, each presents a distinctive urban experience: Woolf’s temporally compressed narrative conveys post-war London through a single day shaped by intersecting inner lives, while Lao She’s episodic form traces Xiangzi’s physical and emotional decline across more than a decade in Republican-era Beijing. In both cases, the city emerges as a dynamic and uneven space, encountered through subjective rhythms and social differentiation.
Complete narrative structures reveal how meaning arises from the unfolding of experience over time. Characters’ experiences, shaped by memory, emotion, routine, and social position, suggest that spatial categories such as paths or landmarks are contingent and affectively charged. Temporality is treated not merely as a narrative device but as a condition of urban life. Drawing on Henri Bergson’s durée and Paul Ricoeur’s notion of narrative followability, the thesis explores how time is embedded in rhythm, movement, and context. Historical visual documents and textual documents—including photographs, film stills, maps, and surveys—are interpreted as constructed representations.
This thesis contributes an original interpretive methodology for exploring the potential of the modern urban novel in interdisciplinary urban analysis. It develops a2sustained interpretive approach that brings narrative form, character perception, temporality, and historical contextualisation into dialogue. By foregrounding how cities are inhabited, imagined, and remembered through narrative, the thesis reveals the value of fiction as a means of reflecting on spatial experience and social transformation.
| Date of Award | Jul 2025 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Tilo Amhoff (Supervisor), Nigel Foxcroft (Supervisor) & Sarah Stevens (Supervisor) |