Letteratura e identità del paesaggio: raccontare chengnan 城南 (il sud della città) a Taipei

The literary representation of space allows us to read the landscape, not just as an external reality but as a complex of symbols whose values and deep meanings give rise to an existential experience with an aesthetic background (Vallega 2003). Consequently, the identity of the landscape is not a unique concept, but it results from the interpretation of the several cultural indicators often ascribed to. The field of Taiwanese literature has long developed a subject of research aimed to highlight and to examine the literary landscapes as setting of literary works. The Taipei urban space is for sure one of the most favored locations, already considered as independent topic with the so-called Taipeiology (台北學). This essay intends to introduce and analyze some symbolic spaces in the south of Taipei city, an area with a strong historical and literary flavor that inspired many authors in the past decades.