TITLE:
An Analysis of Lefebvre’s the Production of Space from the Perspective of Narratology
AUTHORS:
Mengdan Shi
KEYWORDS:
Henry Lefebvre, Spatial Theory, Space of Representation, The Production of Space
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.12 No.3,
March
24,
2025
ABSTRACT: Since the second half of the 20th century, there has been a “spatial turn” in Western theorists, which is in line with this, and the spatial dimension of literary narrative has attracted more and more attention from the narratology community. How to understand space is the premise of spatial narrative research, and it is also a problem that needs to be further sorted out. This paper explores the “Trinitarian Theory of Space” proposed by Lefebvre in The Production of Space, and understands the basic connotation of the dialectical unity of spatial meaning composed of “space of representation”, “representation of space” and “space practice”. “space of representation” refers to the living space, which is the physical space where people live and act: “representation of space” belongs to the conceptual space, which is conceived and organized by the social space order-maker, and it stipulates the “spatial practice”; “Spatial practice” is the embodiment of daily life, and under the penetration and restriction of “representation of space”, “spatial practice” is often embodied as the spatial behavior of the protocol, but it does not exclude the transgression of the protocol. In the context of the innovation of interdisciplinary cognition of space in Western academic circles, grasping the meaning of space at the level of literary narrative is the foothold of understanding space. Literary narrative space is an imaginative and artistic space jointly constructed by authors, readers, and texts, which is not only a spatial form at the level of expression but also a concrete space at the level of content.