权力的空间意象——《癌症楼》的新文化地理解读

近年来,新文化地理学逐渐被中国人文地理学者所关注,空间与权力的关系受到关注,并产生跨学科效应。国内对此的研究多集中于现实空间层面,尚未重视文本的空间意象。从地理学的空间尺度入手,运用文本解构法,从宏观和微观拆解经典文本《癌症楼》中的空间-权力互动机制。宏观尺度的不同空间有其权力象征,集中反映出中心与边缘的对立,并形成时空交错的社会关系;微观尺度空间既以显性和隐性的方式彰显强大的权力对社会空间的控制,也存在对应的反抗空间以及微渺的自由与希望空间。《癌症楼》透射出对以所谓崇高目的为外表的强权的批判,空间既是这种权力生发的工具,同时也驱动了规训与反抗的过程。

Power and Space:A New Cultural Geographical Interpretation on Cancer Ward

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.