Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.1, 2023 

“Architecture” as a Metaphor: The Spiritual Image of the Novel In the Mirror by Ai Wei

(Abstract)

Cheng Depei

The novel In the Mirror by Ai Wei has unique implication for contemporary literary creation. Zhuang Runsheng, an architect who appears from time to time in the novel, introduces, illustrates, and pursues, constituting a secondary narrative thread and an indispensable metaphorical thread of the work. The “architecture” as a metaphor reflects the author’s intent from the perspective of space and geography. If we scrutinize the text while taking the metaphorical architecture as a clue, it can be found that the work has rich external forms and multi-layered psychological connotations. The comparison with similar techniques of Chinese and foreign literary works incrementally reveals the underlying structural network interwoven by the novel’s form and connotation.