On The Novel Red Sisters-in-law And Its Cross-media Transmission

The novel Red Sisters-in-law published in1961has been recomposed intocontemporary revolutionary opera Red Sisters-in-law, ballet Saga of Mt. Yimeng and movieRed Sisters-in-law. The red sister-in-law has been one of the important figures in literatureand artistic works of the20thmainstream ideology. The story of Red Sisters-in-law savingthe wounded soldiers which has been popular during the past half century interprets thepublic attitude in war time and proclaims why the communist party can win the war.However, the popularity of the novel Red Sisters-in-law is not only the result of thegovernment's promotion. Any popular cultural ideology cannot be forcefully promoted.Particular ideology carried by literature and artistic works needs to be approvedconsciously by the public through their inherent appreciation mechanism of the beauty. Thereason why the public favors the Red Sisters-in-law in various artistic forms lies in itsinteresting plot, life-saving humanism and authentic vitality. Especially in the new century,the broadcasting of movie and TV series centered on the Red Sisters-in-law resonate thepublic, which assigns the topic with opening and contemporary significance.This thesis attempts to achieve three purposes: the first, to clarify the transmission ofthe Red Sisters-in-law and explore the reasons of its formation, recomposing andpopularity including the political, cultural and economical factors; the second, to return tothe history and literature scene through the novel text to study its plot, characterization andfit effect of the readers in particular time; the third, based on abundant historical data, tojustify the transmission value of "Red Sisters-in-law spirit" from the authenticity ofliterature and humanistic richness.To reach the researching purpose, the thesis, in a relatively wide-rang framework,taking social history criticism method and the opinions of narratology, culturology,transmission and psychology, attempts to expound how the various transmission formsshift from political discourse to literature discourse and analyze the underlying reason ofits popularity and transmission value. The thesis consists of five chapters except introduction and conclusion. The firstchapter discusses the novel Red Sisters-in-law and its cultural meaning, to make a valuejudgment of its ideological content and artistic quality through analyzing its creationreason, content structure and characters, and to explain its historical reasons and clarify thecontemporary shifting context of Yimeng traditional culture. The second chapter discussesthe opera Red Sisters-in-law and its evolution. The content includes three parts: theperformance of opera Red Sisters-in-law and its influence, the recomposing into the RedClouded Hillock and filming, and the opera Eternal Friendship and the opera RedSisters-in-law and its rehearse in new era. We discuss the creation course of RedSisters-in-law in various versions ranging from novel to opera, and the "changing" and"unchanging" of the plots and characters. The third chapter discusses the ballet Saga of Mt.Yimeng and "model opera". We analyze the historical background of the ballet, comparethe ballet version and opera version, and study the transmission value and its effect of theballet. We also objectively justify the "quasi-model opera" and Jiangqing. The fourthchapter discusses the movie Red Sisters-in-law and TV series Yimeng Six Sisters, Yimeng,Yimeng Passion and other Yimeng traditional operas. We focus on the transmission themeand the transmission strategy evolution of the movies and operas on Red Sisters-in-law innew era. The fifth chapter discusses the transmission value of Red Sisters-in-law, includingthe values for literature, spirit and social economy. We concentrate on the connotation andthe actual significance of Red Sisters-in-law spirit and Yimeng spirit. An overallunderstanding of the transmission value of Red Sisters-in-law can be achieved through theinterdisciplinary research.