Spatial inscription and diasporic predicaments: Timothy Mo’s Sour Sweet through Zoran’s theoretical lens

In Timothy Mo’s Sour Sweet (1982), spatial narrative is meticulously constructed as a core strategy for unveiling the marginalized status and complex psychosomatic struggles of post-WWII Chinese immigrants in Britain. Drawing on Gabriel Zoran’s theoretical framework of space in narrative, this study systematically examines three mutually constitutive dimensions—topographical, chronotopic, and textual spaces—to elucidate how Mo’s spatial operations critically mirror the structural exclusion, cultural alienation, identity anxiety, and existential precarity confronting the Chinese diaspora during British integration, while excavating the historical significations embedded within this familial narrative. Specifically, topographical space mobilizes spatial oppositions to concretize systemic sociocultural estrangement, intra-familial affective ruptures, and the dissolution of diasporic masculinity; chronotopic space employs synchronic and diachronic analysis to trace divergent adaptation trajectories, foregrounding openness and negotiation as pivotal to successful cross-cultural navigation; and textual space strategically deploys “the selectivity of language,” “the textual linearity,” and “the perspectival structure” to holistically articulate the universality and ineffability of diasporic experience. This multi-dimensional spatial narrative framework not only furnishes a nuanced analytical prism for individual migrant odysseys—vividly delineating the pervasive rupture, belonging anxiety, and arduous survival negotiation within heterogeneous cultural spaces endemic to global displacement—but also radically illuminates core thematic concerns of cultural conflict and identity formation. Placing space at the core of its analysis, this paper integrates Zoran’s framework with the theories of Henri Lefebvre, Mikhail Bakhtin, and Edward Soja to conduct in-depth dialogues. It significantly advances critical engagement with Mo’s distinctive narrative poetics, opens up a new pathway for understanding the profound meanings of his works, and provides significant spatial perspective insights for comprehending migrant experiences and related sociocultural reflections.