The Heterotopia in the Attic: On The Picture of Dorian Gray’s Spatial Transgression and Identity Collapse


Journal of Literary Writing and Evaluation (Print ISSN 3078-8129; Online ISSN: 3104-5073)

Copyright © 2025 by Journal of Literary Writing and Evaluation. All rights reserved.

JLWEVol.1, No.1,2025,pp. 74-82.


阁楼中的异托邦:
论《道林·格雷的画像》中的空间僭越与身份坍缩

 

周维炜(Zhou Weiwei[1]

 

摘要:作为王尔德最具颠覆性的美学宣言,在福柯异托邦理论视域下《道林·格雷的画像》中的阁楼重构为兼具封闭性、矛盾并置与暴力性的坍缩场域。通过研究,阁楼不仅是对沙龙虚伪表象的补偿性空间,也是道德僭越、阶级符号消解与酷儿身份压抑的“暗柜”。其通过割裂公共与私密领域的空间实践,将社会规训内化为自我监视机制,最终导致主体性的异化与崩解。该空间政治阐释揭示了阁楼的双重暴力本质:既庇护道德僭越,又协同权力规训,深化了王尔德对维多利亚伪善的批判。

关键词:异托邦;《道林·格雷的画像》;空间;身份

 

Title: The Heterotopia in the Attic: On The Picture of Dorian Gray’s Spatial Transgression and Identity Collapse

Abstract: As the most subversive aesthetic manifesto in Wilde’s oeuvre, the attic in The Picture of Dorian Gray is reconstructed as a collapsed spatial field characterized by enclosure, contradictory juxtaposition, and violence through Foucault’s heterotopia theory. Through analysis, the attic emerges not only as a compensatory space offsetting the hypocritical facade of the salon but also as a “dark closet” that conceals moral transgressions, dissolves class symbols, and represses queer identity. By severing the connection between public and private spheres through spatial practices, it internalizes social discipline into a self-surveillance mechanism, ultimately leading to the alienation and disintegration of subjectivity. This spatial-political interpretation reveals the attic’s dual violent nature: while sheltering moral transgressions, it simultaneously collaborates with power discipline, thereby deepening Wilde’s critique of Victorian hypocrisy.

Keywords: Heterotopia; The Picture of Dorian Gray; spatial; identity



[1] 周维炜(Zhou Weiwei)广州华立学院外国语学院教师,研究方向:英语文学与翻译。电邮:13242347428@163.com