A Study Of Musicality Of Chinese Modern Fiction

Parts of Chinese modern fiction with musicality are the aim of this article. Inside the text, which will try to read and understand the relation between fiction and music from a trans-art point under the research background of the theory of musicalization of fiction by Werner Wolf. The overlaps and gaps arise when the two different art media as a reference of literary writing and criticizing of each other. Then, we can analyze the meaning of humanity,culture and art deeply behind those overlaps and gaps. Therefore, the main meaning of musicality in this context is a way of grasping and understanding those art works and the world, an inner-structure of any life form. There are four parts in the thesis.In the part of introduction, the concept of the musicality of Chinese modern fiction will be given, and point out that the research of fictional musicality must be going on in a systematical and rigid progress. After that, it was an overview of the achievements, present situation and the future of the research between fiction and music (the musicality/musicalization) inside and outside China.In the first chapter, it's a theoretical discussion of fictional musicality. Life, art and musicality have a basic co-relation. If the phenomenon of life is the origin of all arts, the musicality must be one of the keyword in the deep relation. In fact, it does not only belong to Chinese art, western also. It seems that the musicality of fiction is so opaque that it's difficult for us to find and talk about them. What have been changed or transferred from the musicality of poem----the 'sister art' of music, to the musicality of fiction? What are the differences between the musicalization and musicality of fiction? Different with the history of western fiction, musicality is an applicable way for understanding the relation between the writing and criticizing of Chinese modern fiction and music, but one should remember that musicalization here function as a technique of musicality. It is a main distinction from the research by Werner wolf from this respect to begin with the discussion in this thesis. Due to the definition of musicality may include metaphysical level. Just because of the distinction, the topic will be discussed from different levels of implicit and explicit features in the following three chapters.The second chapter is the first part of explicit feature of Chinese modern fiction, namely exploiting the musicality from the level of word. As is known, first of all, fiction is a kind of'sound series'. When we read those'sound series'with different style, we are enjoying the art of language with different style and form, and the way of the emotional transmission. Chinese modern writer such as Luxun, Yeshengtao and so on, they all were familiar with Chinese classical literature, therefore they have an instinct for the sound of the word such as'pleasing to the ear and smoothly to read'. The second section of the chapter will deal with the signifier and signified of fictional language in the Fox Trot of Shanghai. When the relation of the two were changing, the signifier uncovered the material of the media itself, it's like a free flowing melody whose moving were near to the real appearance of things. On top of it, we will re-discuss and examine the phenomenon of the musicality of the fictional language on the 'word music' or form analogical level. The third section will concern about the formal function of the musicality of the fictional language. That is, when those writer regard music as a literature ideal reference, the musicality of fictional language at least function as obeying and escaping, expressing a new emotional structure and so on.The third chapter is the second part of the explicit feature of the musicality of Chinese modern fiction, namely, from the level of fictional structure. Firstly, we will take A Recording of Visiting the Raibow by Shencongwen as an example, to analyze the special experiment of'composing with human emotion and life'. The fiction imitated music not only in the structure level, but also managed to create a real experience of listening to a piece of music. Therefore, it was a kind of'verbal music' in a broad sense. For this reason, it was a unique work in the history of Chinese fiction and even in the world. Secondly, an example from Luxun, A Madman's Diary, will be discussed from a view of polyphonic and musicality which based on the predecessors' research. It is to be noted that this is an effect endow by critics. Finally, the function of the structure will be outlined, that is:the spatialize function of linear narrative, as a symbol of the order of the world, and to throw off some sort of effect which was beyond fiction.The fourth chapter will talk about the implicit feature of the musicality of Chinese modern fiction. It's a question we cannot solve by the frame of musicalization of fiction. We will choose two famous lyrical fictions in the history of Chinese modern fiction as cases, that is, Frontier Town and A Biography of Hulan River. The same to the discussion above, the former used musical technique intensionally; the latter was a free and sincere revealing of life rhythm under specific condition of life. Both of them are near to 'the sound of nature', for they all display a vivid and rich meaning of life, art and musicality which were developed in the first chapter.