A Study On Anonymous Book From The Perspective Of Cultural Poetics

In the forties of last century, Wu Mingshi (无名氏) entered into the Chinese modern literature stage with two popular novels, namely, The Landscape in East Polar and Woman in Tower. His dormant talent was not demonstrated until he published a long historical masterpiece, Anonymous Book, a six volume novel in the 1950s. In this book, he tried to weave his thinking of human existence and ultimacy from a macro cultural perspective. Owing to political, historical and regional factors as well as the lack of access to related research literature, little research on Anonymous Book had been carried out before 1990s. Besides the factors listed above, it is assumed that, the grand theme, complex philosophy and various artistic skills of the book also pose challenges to researchers. Based on thorough text-reading of the book, with "Cultural Poetics" concept as its general theoretical framework, this dissertation conducts a comprehensive interpretation of cultural and artistic value of the book, and detailed analysis of the internal and external factors that correlate and contribute to the formation of its cultural and poetic values. It is hoped that the present pioneering and tentative research will lead to further research on this interesting book.The dissertation is composed of three parts, the introduction, the body part and the conclusion, and further divided into six chapters.The first chapter briefly analyzes the historical context of Cultural Poetics and its development, traces its legitimatization process in Chinese academia, and discusses the possibility of introducing Cultural Poetics in the present study.The second chapter analyzes Wu Mingshi's cultural pursuit as well as the complicated shaping of his understanding and concept of novels. It briefly outlines his personality, and the relationship between his novel writing and the position he takes in the history of literature. The focus of this chapter is on his understating of contemporary literary genres as well as the motivations of his writing.The third chapter gives a comprehensive analysis of the cultural themes of Anonymous Book. These themes are mainly embodied in the coexistence and interaction of various life forms and the spirit reflected by these life forms of their times. Furthermore, the process of "wrestling" between ideology, literary norms and writer's subject spirit to realize the ideal of human culture is discussed here.The fourth chapter interprets the major images conceived and created in Anonymous Book, and specifically analyzes the writer's attempts to embody his philosophical and cultural reflections into images. The use of images contributes to the understanding of the writer's effort to write "Beyond Reality".The fifth chapter conducts an intertextual analysis of Anonymous Book and other forms of arts, such as painting and audio-visual art. The main character Lin Suzi and the love story between Tang Jingqing and Jing Lan of the book highlights the author's efforts to absorb and takes advantages of other art forms, demonstrating the writer's unique cultural and artistic style, and the extensive sources of the popularization and modernity of this book.The conclusion gives a brief review of the characteristics of "The Spiritual Pursuit" of novel writing in the 1940 and summarizes the merits and demerit of Anonymous Book. It is hoped that the present research will become an inspiration for further research on the book in academia.