The narrative of “clock”: The social time and cultural reconstruction of modern cities in Eileen Chang’s literary works

School of Humanities, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, 201100, China

^* Corresponding author: 1000553089@smail.shnu.edu.cn

Abstract

This paper takes the “clock”, the product of modern industrial civilization, as the entry point, and aims to explore the narrative function of the “clock” in Eileen Chang’s writing in the text and the urban material cultural memory it carries through the analysis from micro to macro. Based on the theoretical framework of new materialism, this study focuses on the image narrative of “clock” in Chang’s works and its cultural metaphorical function as a symbol of modernity. “Clock”, as the medium to construct the tension field of physical time and psychological time, serves not only as a narrative power to promote plot development, but also as a cultural symbol to carry the discipline of colonial modernity on individual life. Then, based on the perspective of material culture history, this paper compares the intertextuality between Chang’s “clock” and classical literature, and highlights the disenchantment process of the “clock” under the modern concept and the power reconstruction of semi-colonial time. The study breaks through the existing paradigm of image research and provides a new interpretation path for understanding the material narration and modernity experience in Chang’s literature.