Rewriting Media and Literary Space in the Metropolis: Immigrant Writings in London across Centuries

December 9, 2024

👤Author

Name: Chen HONGYU
Affiliation: Tsinghua University, China
Contact: hychen.ella@gmail.com

📄Article

Citation Recommendation: Chen, Hongyu. â€œRewriting Media and Literary Space in the Metropolis: Immigrant Writings in London across Centuries”. Synthesis, 3 / 2024: 125-145.
Pages: 125-145
Language: English
URL:https://synthesis.ro/pdf/2024/3/8_Chen.pdf

Abstract

This article analyses how elements of mass media in Sam Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners (1956) and Guo Xiaolu’s A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (2007) reinforce and challenge London’s position as “literary capital” and also transform its language, value system, and hierarchy. This system of values absorbs people into a “monolingual paradigm” which reinforces the dominant position of the language. However, Selvon’s novel challenges the city mediascape, the standardized English language, and even English literary tradition. Fifty years later, although Guo Xiaolu fails to transform the position of English in the metropolis, she still adopts elements of mass media and uses formal innovations to challenge the hierarchy established by mass media and English literary traditions, pointing to the immigrants’ new life experience and relationship to the metropolis in the 21st century.

Key-words: immigrant writing, mass media, metropolis, immigration experiences, English literature

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