Colonial powers exert dominance over their subject countries in multiple registers, for example, education and spatial constructions, which foster the colonised other‘s identification with the colonial power centre. Racial and local cultures of subject nations are thus systematically distorted and the transmission of memory through material culture is obscured. Focusing on contemporary Taiwan, this research examines how architectural and ideological strategies were employed by the dominant authorities to consolidate the power centre and explores possible means for shaping Taiwanese spatial subjectivity in the historical aftermath of such situations. The research examines the Formosans‘ ambiguous identification with local cultures and marginal spatial propositions, as well as discussing the inculcation of the 'great Chinese ideology‘ by analysing the teaching materials used in modern Taiwanese primary education. Reviewing aspects of contemporary post-colonial theory, the research explores the spatial implications of Taiwanese post-colonial textual narratives and argues for them as a potential source for the construction of contemporary spatial conditions, as these novels are shaped by an awareness of the importance of local cultures and the voices of marginalised people. The thesis thus suggests that a re-thinking of Taiwan‘s public spaces can be stimulated by spatial metaphors in textual narratives that associate peoples‘ memories of political and local events with spatial images that were previously suppressed. To explore the potential for the generation of space through reference to literary works, this research studies the ‗narrative architecture‘ experiments of the 1970s and 80s and goes on to propose a series of representational media for the construction of spatial narrations in Taiwan. Multiple spatial propositions concerning the island‘s post-colonial condition can be suggested by the visualisation of spatial metaphors that are embedded in Taiwanese textual narratives. At the end of the thesis, two proposals for post-colonial spatial narration are put forward, which transform the spatial propositions latent in the devices developed through a new juxtaposition with existing urban contexts. The intention of the research is to indicate a new urban spatial strategy for Taiwan, one that can allow its people to grasp the multiple layers of their conflicted spatial history while at the same time responding to the ongoing spatial confrontation between the power centre and the voices in the margins.

First outlined by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) continues to thrive (e.g. Lakoff&Johnson 1992, Lakoff, 1993, 1999, 2008), by first challenging the traditional view on metaphor as a matter of language and something extraordinary and poetic. CMT claims that metaphor is pervasive and essential in language and thought. Furthermore, metaphor is considered as the locus for abstract reasoning in this theory.Since its proposal, CMT has triggered plethoric research. However, few empirical studies have examined metaphors in second language (L2) acquisition and the importance of metaphor has not been fully recognized as an indispensable dimension in second language teaching and learning (Littlemore, 2009; Littlemore&Low, 2006b). However, metaphors present a hurdle for L2 learners (Danesi, 1992); L2 learners misinterpret metaphors for cultural reasons (Littlemore, 2003); teaching conceptual metaphor as a learning strategy facilitate language learning (Littlemore&Low, 2006a; Li, 2009).Thus, the current study investigates metaphor in learner language in light of CMT via a corpus-based approach. The study particularly examines how L2 learners of Chinese and English express vertical spatial metaphors in L2 English and L2 Chinese writings and how they differ from learners' target languages and learners' native languages.The findings reveal that L2 language development is a dynamic process and four key factors are found to interplay in learners' acquisition of conceptual metaphors: frequency of the metaphor, L2 proficiency, topic familiarity, and linguistic factors. In particular, the frequency of the metaphor as reflected in the target language has the most important impact on learners' acquisition of conceptual metaphors, overriding the factor whether a metaphor is shared in L1 and L2 or not; secondly, L2 proficiency influences how learners are affected by their first languages: learners with lower proficiency are more affected; thirdly, learners acquire the metaphors associated with a familiar topic; finally, L2 learners are constrained by the main semantic unit in the metaphorical expressions. Overall, the study demonstrates that figurative language development is a dynamic process: learners' metaphoric competence demonstrates a developmental pattern, in particular, a pendulum effect and it eventually emerges over L2 proficiency.

本論文探討英國劇作家凱洛•邱琪兒之《九重天》以及《頂尖女孩》兩劇中深具顛覆性的時空手法。本論文由五章組成。第一章回顧多年來相關的眾多評論角度。第二章援引巴赫汀(Mikhail Bakhtin)的時空型(chronotope)概念探討兩戲中時空融匯的現象，尤其是劇中人物心理、身體狀態，戲劇時空，以及外在社會文化時空背景，三者之間緊密的互動。兩齣戲各別有著兩個不同的時空型：《九重天》第一幕代表的是性別角色僵化的時空型，第二幕則代表了1979年當時社會上傳統性別角色開放且迅速轉變的狀態；《頂尖女孩》則透過一對姐妹Marlene與Joyce對映出當時兩種不同的女性生活，一個是典型八零年代柴契爾主義的事業女強人，一個則是在此種政經趨勢下卻相對更加弱勢的傳統女性。 第三章則探討兩劇第一幕呈現長久以來隱藏空間當中的性別歧視。透過女性地理學者(feminist geographical theorist)之觀點，筆者分析兩戲當中兩性間不同的空間體驗(spatial experience)，以及公/私領域之分界(private-public distinction)所暗藏性別歧視的空間隱喻(spatial metaphor)。當男性與冒險及旅行等等充滿能動性(mobility)的字眼連結，女性卻總是被動地與家庭空間緊緊連繫。邱琪兒在此揭露空間亦為不公平的性別政治當中之一環。 第四章則著重於分析《九重天》第二幕當中的公園場景，以及《頂尖女孩》第二、三幕的辦公室與廚房場景。首先援引傅柯(Michel Foucault)的異質空間(heterotopia)概念來討論各場景間複雜的鏡像與補償關係。透過空間理論學者昂希．列菲弗爾(Henri Lefebvre)以及抵抗地景(geographies of resistance)的空間生產理論分析邱琪兒如何透過呈現特定社會族群佔領特定空間的手法，企圖激進地改變現實當中此類空間的社會意義。 雖然距兩齣劇作首演的年代已有二十多年，但其中所探討之議題依然常見於現今二十一世紀的社會當中。邱琪兒預見了現今複雜的家庭狀態以及大鳴大放的同性戀運動。即使越來越多女性在政治界或是企業界嶄露頭角，世界上多數的女性依然掙扎於找尋工作與家庭之間的平衡點。 / This thesis is to examine Caryl Churchill’s subversive temporal and spatial devices on stage in Cloud Nine and Top Girls. The chronotopes of the two plays articulate how people’s states of beings interact with the external social and cultural conditions, especially during the 1980s in London. Both plays crystallize the space politics full of gender discriminations in the patriarchal society. In addition, Churchill’s dramatic devices are the subversive spatial practice that transforms the gendered spaces into the sites of resistance in order to manifest her protest and seeks more possibilities for the gender roles in the future. There are five chapters in this thesis. Chapter One is an introduction, including the overview of two plays and the review of numerous analyses in the past two and half decades. In Chapter Two, Churchill’s theatrical temporal and spatial devices, including setting, synchronism, and anachronism in Cloud Nine and Top Girls construct chronotopes that lay bare the special social and cultural condition in a certain historical moment. Those chronotopes demonstrate how Churchill unifies people’s internal states of being and the external political structures together. Moreover, by presenting the chronotopes, Churchill criticizes the slowness of the progress in gender politics and the possible backlash about women’s right in the 1980s. In Chapter Three, I analyze how the spatiality of patriarchy constructed by the private-public dichotomy in both Act Ones of Cloud Nine and Top Girls. The spatial experiences between men and women depicted in Act One of Cloud Nine illustrate the stereotypical masculinity and femininity in the Victorian age. The spatial metaphors about movement in Act One of Top Girls expose the strict boundary between the private and the public spaces, and foreshadow the importance of mobility as being a possible strategy to transgress the boundaries. Finally, Chapter Four is the analysis about how Churchill subversively and politically explores the possibility of creating new social spaces in the park space of Cloud Nine and the office space of Top Girls. Her theatrical strategies are potential spatial practices that create the rupture to transgress the unfair restrictions and discriminations in the patriarchal and heterosexual society. The final chapter concludes that Churchill’s dramatic devices about time and space are the subversive strategies to conduct her observations and criticisms about the unfairness in society.