Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Take the Elevator to Tomorrow : Mobile Space and Lingering Time in Contemporary Urban Fiction

Møller-Olsen, Astrid LU (2022) In Prism: Theory and Modern Chinese Literature 19(1). p.86-101
Abstract
What if, in the encounter between the subject and the city, it is the buildings, the streets, the rooms that are moving and the human beings who are at a standstill? Inspired by the efforts of literary scholars and human geographers to apply a unified understanding of space and time to the study of the (fictional) city, this article employs an analysis centered on the figure of the elevator to explore how literary narratives can help expand our understanding of space-time as an intuitive and quotidian fact of existence. In a comparative study of Taiwanese author Wu Mingyi's short story “The Ninety-Ninth Floor” and Hong Kong writer Dorothy Tse's “Mute Doors,” this article proposes the term time-space as a suitable concept for dealing with... (More)
What if, in the encounter between the subject and the city, it is the buildings, the streets, the rooms that are moving and the human beings who are at a standstill? Inspired by the efforts of literary scholars and human geographers to apply a unified understanding of space and time to the study of the (fictional) city, this article employs an analysis centered on the figure of the elevator to explore how literary narratives can help expand our understanding of space-time as an intuitive and quotidian fact of existence. In a comparative study of Taiwanese author Wu Mingyi's short story “The Ninety-Ninth Floor” and Hong Kong writer Dorothy Tse's “Mute Doors,” this article proposes the term time-space as a suitable concept for dealing with discrete sections of space-time in literature and goes on to explore the elevator as a prime example of such an explicitly temporal, and spatially confined, time-space. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
space-time, time-space, chronotope, Taipei, Hong Kong
in
Prism: Theory and Modern Chinese Literature
volume
19
issue
1
pages
86 - 101
publisher
Duke University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:85134674555
ISSN
2578-3491
DOI
10.1215/25783491-9645922
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e33f96fe-a7eb-488b-942f-0d27bfe01937
alternative location
https://read.dukeupress.edu/prism/article-abstract/19/1/86/304101/Take-the-Elevator-to-TomorrowMobile-Space-and?redirectedFrom=fulltext
date added to LUP
2022-08-23 12:57:28
date last changed
2023-12-03 06:59:15
@article{e33f96fe-a7eb-488b-942f-0d27bfe01937,
  abstract     = {{What if, in the encounter between the subject and the city, it is the buildings, the streets, the rooms that are moving and the human beings who are at a standstill? Inspired by the efforts of literary scholars and human geographers to apply a unified understanding of space and time to the study of the (fictional) city, this article employs an analysis centered on the figure of the elevator to explore how literary narratives can help expand our understanding of space-time as an intuitive and quotidian fact of existence. In a comparative study of Taiwanese author Wu Mingyi's short story “The Ninety-Ninth Floor” and Hong Kong writer Dorothy Tse's “Mute Doors,” this article proposes the term time-space as a suitable concept for dealing with discrete sections of space-time in literature and goes on to explore the elevator as a prime example of such an explicitly temporal, and spatially confined, time-space.}},
  author       = {{Møller-Olsen, Astrid}},
  issn         = {{2578-3491}},
  keywords     = {{space-time; time-space; chronotope; Taipei; Hong Kong}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{03}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{86--101}},
  publisher    = {{Duke University Press}},
  series       = {{Prism: Theory and Modern Chinese Literature}},
  title        = {{Take the Elevator to Tomorrow : Mobile Space and Lingering Time in Contemporary Urban Fiction}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/25783491-9645922}},
  doi          = {{10.1215/25783491-9645922}},
  volume       = {{19}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}