Urbanization and Spatial Justice: The Representation of New Urban Migrants in Zola's?The?Assommoir [城市化进程与空间正义——左拉《小酒店》中的城市新移民书写]

作者：Rong J.^*

来源：Foreign Literature Studies, 2023, 45(1): 141-151.

• new migrants in the city
• spatial justice
• The Assommoir
• urbanization
• Zola

Zola's representative work, The Assommoir, shows the process of urbanization in the 19th-century France by depicting the influx of new migrants into Paris from other provinces and the countryside. This article analyzes the representation of new migrants in the city from three different aspects, namely, physical space, social space, and spiritual space. The alienation in physical space, social space, and spiritual space keeps them wandering on the edge of the city, unable to obtain their identity or truly assimilate into the urban society. The novel shows not only Zola's deep sympathy and humanitarian care for the new migrants in the city, but also a merciless revelation of the nature of urbanization in a capitalist society, that is, under the logic of capital operation, the bourgeoisie holds the absolute advantage in plundering and exploiting the new migrants in the city by abusing the urban-rural relations. This is why the creative significance of The Assommoir goes far beyond the scope of bestselling novels. The representation of the new migrants in the city truly manifests Zola's reflections on the issues concerning social justice based on spatial dimensions and delineates his anxiety and yearning for spatial justice in the process of urbanization.

• 单位
  华中师范大学