Dream of the Red Chamber and the Emergence and Evolution of Narrative Modernity in Chinese Literature
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61173/b4bnm311Keywords:
Dream of the Red Chamber, Chinese Narratology, Modernity of Chinese LiteratureAbstract
Discussions on the inception of modernity have been ongoing since the last century, with some scholars attributing it to the late Qing or late Ming periods, and most still place it within the May Fourth Movement. Nevertheless, Dream of the Red Chamber already harbors factors of modernity’s inception and growth. Starting from the narratological perspective of Dream of the Red Chamber, this paper takes root in the cultural context of China’s native culture. It explores the book’s manifestation of the initial pattern of Chinese narrative modernity and its significance to the literary history of the late Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China and the later generations through its transcendence of Chinese classical novels when comparing its difference with western narratology. Through the dimensions of Layout of Discursive Traps, Motive Power Component, and The Aesthetic Construction of Time, borrowing from indigenous narrative theories of China, it is discovered that at the birth of Dream of the Red Chamber, China’s indigenous narrative modernity had already emerged and continued to evolve and spread, which merged with Western modernity during the late Qing period, constructing a fusion of Chinese and Western literary discourse fields.
References
[1] You Guo-en et al. History of Chinese Literature 4. Beijing: People‘s Literature Publishing House, 1983.
[2] Mair, Victor H., ed. The Columbia history of Chinese literature. Columbia University Press, 2010.
[3] Wang D. Fin-de-Siècle splendor: repressed modernities of late Qing fiction, 1848-1911. Stanford University Press, 1997.
[4] Li Oufan. Culture of the Late Ming Dynasty, Zhongzheng Publishing House, 1996.
[5] Henderson B. “The Searchers”: An American Dilemma. Film Quarterly, 1980, 34(2): 9-23.
[6] Andrew H. Plaks. Chinese narrative: Critical and theoretical essays. Princeton University Press, 2014.
[7] Chen Pingyuan. The evolving mode of the Chinese novel recount. Peking University Press, 2022.
[8] Wang Bin. Narrative of a Dream of Red Mansions. Beijing: China Workers Publishing House, 1998.
[9] Bakhtin, Mikhail. Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. University of Minnesota Press. 1984: 6–7.
[10] Cao Xueqin; Zhi yanzhai. Zhi Yanzhai’s Review of the Stone Record. Shenyang Publishing House, 2006.
[11] Wang Bin. the dynamic elements in the novel. Journal of College of Literature in Nanjing Normal University, 2017 (2): 76-80.
[12] Hsun L. A brief history of Chinese fiction. The Minerva Group, Inc., 2000.
[13] Bakhtin M. Problems of Dostoevsky’s poetics. U of Minnesota Press, 2013.
[14] Qi Qing; Qian Wei. Lin Daiyu’s Diary. Beijing: China International Broadcasting Press, 1988.01.
[15] Liu Caonan, Ed. Preface Collection of Tanci of Dream of the Red Chamber. Beijing: Academy Press, 2003.05.
[16] Luo Xiaojing. Novels from the Late Qing Dynasty to the May Fourth Movement from the Perspective of “Individual”: On the Modern Concept of Individual and the Modern Transformation of Chinese Literature. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2012.
[17] Yao Yuanchu. Sad novel The Record of Yan Cu Zhenxian. Novel Cluster Newspaper Office, 1915.05.
[18] Yi J J. The Dream of the Red Chamber: An Allegory of Love. Homa & Sekey Books, 2004.
[19] Lin Yutang. Moment in Peking. Wuhan: Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House, 2014.
[20] GAO Yang. Dream of Broken Red Mansions. Haikou: Nanhai Publishing Company, 1995.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 by the authors.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
