Transportation Imagery in W. Somerset Maugham’s Works

Abstract

Transportation, as a recurring literary image in Maugham’s works, is not only the physical carrier for characters to achieve spatial movement, but also carries rich literary significance. This article takes Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge, The Painted Veil, and On a Chinese Screen as the research objects, and analyzes the multiple roles of transportation in the narrative of the novels, social writing, and cultural exchanges. Transportation can facilitate the change of characters’ spatial positions, cause their fates to change, and further drive the development of the story; at the social level, different transportation methods reflect the process of the alternation between old and new societies, and also reveal the differences between social identities and classes; at the level of cultural exchanges, transportation crosses geographical and cultural boundaries, providing practical conditions for the exchange and integration of different civilizations. Thus, it can be seen that transportation not only enriches the narrative layers of Maugham’s works, but also provides a new research perspective for understanding his cross-cultural writing.