| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 英國語文學研究所 === 100 === Jim Crace’s novel Arcadia delineates a city from the perspective of human mentality by means of an incognito critical social observer. The displacement of a modernized shopping mall for a traditional open market is the most important incident that causes a great impact upon the urban people. In this thesis, I would like to use Chris Jenks’ analysis of the flâneur and situationist concepts of psychogeography, dérive, détournement, and the spectacle to analyze how Crace presents the interaction between man and space which is threatened by the visual manipulation hidden behind urban planning. He also points out that urban inhabitants and their living environment form an organic whole that will keep evolving through their mutual influence. Applying Jenks’ discussion on the flâneur and situationist concepts of psychogeography and dérive, I would first show that Crace breaks the boundary between psychology and geography to present a collage of different interpretations based upon several characters’ mentalities. Then, the construction of the new shopping mall named Arcadia brings up the juxtaposition of the topos Arcadia and the issue of urban public space. With the practice of détournement, the narrator deconstructs the countryside in the shopping mall as the duplication of nature and emphasizes that the life of the city does not reside in the spectacular sites but in diverse and mutual interactions between urban space and its inhabitants. With spatial practices of dérive and détournement, the narrator not only criticizes that both social relationship and urban space are saturated with separation caused by the spectacle, but also makes known that urban people still hold the autonomy of creating alternative spatial use even under the dominant representation of the spectacle in the city.
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