The image of Shanghai in the novel “In the Web of Shanghai” by K. Shendrikova

About the authors:

Anna A. Arustamova, Dr. Sci. (Philol.), Associate Professor, Leading Researcher, Department of Russian Literature, Perm State University, Perm, Russia
aarustamova@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3079-0253

Boris V. Kondakov, Dr. Sci. (Philol.), Professor, Head of the Center for East Asian Studies, Perm State University, Perm, Russia
kondakovb@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1727-8047

Abstract:

The article examines the image of the city in the novel “In the Web of Shanghai” (1937) by K. Shendrikova, the writer of the eastern branch of the Russian emigration of the first wave. The image of Shanghai primarily reveals the social contradictions of the life of the Chinese city and the Russian emigrants in it. K. Shendrikova depicts in detail the hardships of life of emigrants, the social and moral problems they faced in China. Shanghai is presented as a city of social and cultural contrasts. The principle of dichotomy is central to the structuring of space in the novel. K. Shendrikova accentuates “Chinese world” as the “other” for Russian emigrants. In the novel, the metaphor “Shanghai’s web” is plotted, which acquires a social meaning. The landscape, which performs a social function, plays an important role in constructing the image of the city. At the same time, the work uses devices of not only realism, but also modernism. Newsreel techniques become especially important, and the film motive becomes plot-forming.

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