Time, Space, and Memory: The Rhythmic Saunterers in City of the Mind and "The Old Capital"

[[abstract]]There is an indivisible relationship among time, space, and memory, all of which coexist and interact with one another in the city. The city is always plastic and malleable because it is affected not only by the external, developmental forces but also by people’s lived experiences, memories, and histories on the other hand. In Penelope Lively’s ninth novel City of the Mind (1991) and Chu Tien-hsin’s novella “The Old Capital” (1996), both writers concern the issues of time, space, memory, and history in their works. They also feature fl?neur narrators who stroll around the cities and display their mental visions of the cities. In my thesis, I aim to use City of the Mind and “The Old Capital” as case studies to examine how people face the cities they live, and verify how time, space, and memory serve as the key points for everyone to build one’s own city of the mind. My thesis consists of five chapters. In the first chapter, I briefly introduce both Lively and Chu, their works City of the Mind and “The Old Capital,” and how their works are possibly impacted by their lives. The second chapter focuses on the theories I apply to my textual analysis, including Henri Lefebvre’s triad of spatial theory and rhythmanalysis, and the figure of the fl?neur and his characteristic “walking.” In the third and fourth chapters, I review City of the Mind and “The Old Capital” with the preceding theories. I regard both protagonists as the exempla of my proposed rhythmic saunterers. Their walking and examination of the memories—including the memories of the cities and themselves—provide the protagonists a way to reconstruct the histories of the city and release themselves from the traumas or the shackles of the past. In the final concluding chapter, I suggest that my urban studies of these two fictions direct me to ponder on my own city and lived experiences. By affirming the importance of personal memories and history in molding representational spaces in these two texts, and by confirming the importance of both walking and rhythms, I attempt to cultivate one possible stance, one achievable approach for us—the younger generation who are different from Chu and who confront more transient changes—in the hope that we may identify ourselves and reconcile with the rapidly changing world (in my case, Taiwan).