Study On The Characteristics Of Intertextuality In Ch'ien Chung-shu's Literary Criticism

This thesis will consider this question: Is there a possibility for the literary criticism of Ch'ien Chung-shu and western thory of intertextuality to converse? If the answer is yes, then on which level can they converse?The introduction of this thesis begins with 'quote copiously from a great variety of sources' in Ch'ien Chung-shu's works, and then point out that this phenomenon means the quite commonly existing intertextuality relation between different texts .The first chapter investigates the conversation between east and west about intertextuality. It attempts to show that there is a potential for conversation between the literary criticism of Ch'ien Chung-shu and Intertextuality. In this chapter the development of Intertextuality is first recalled and a summary of several meanings is provided on the basis of this. Next, the intertextuality sources of Chinese literature will be analysed,it shows that because of the intertextuality thoughts of traditional literary theory and the the space of intertextuality in LeiShu, the intertextuality literary phenomena have been provided for researchers to study intertextuality issues. Finally, it will be concluded that the literary criticism of Ch'ien Chung-shu has language dimension, history dimension and comparative dimension and they are the fundamental reasons of his everlasting deep consideration of intertextuality.The second chapter discusses the form and display of intertextuality relation and points out Ch'ien Chung-shu's viewpoint on the causes and the external features of contact relations between different texts.Ch'ien Chung-shu's literary criticism shows that the derivation and the coincidence are the two most basic parts of the form of intertextuality. The shroud of literary works over later writers, the impact of ancient literature on the psychology of later writers, and the increasingly serious literature imitation are the main causes of derivation. The instinctive communication of human psychology, the limitation or the shortage of discourse sources, and the narrow space for some special literary form are the main causes for coincidence. Meanwhile, based on the language signs between different texts,the commonly existing intertextuality is shown by Ch'ien Chung-shu vividly through respective description of their recessiveness anddominance features and through network and chain made by all these texts.The third chapter considers the issue of'text-in-text'.It discusses this question: How does Ch'ien Chung-shu understand the characteristic of text inter-constitution? Ch'ien Chung-shu realises clearly the characteristics of the inter-constitution of the text as the fabric interwoven by many different discourses. Ch'ien Chung-shu undertook a lot of exposition, explication and deep analysis of different discourses which have striking features about fluid, revival and assemblage,such as literary quotation, words, sentence structure, the meaning and the image in literary works, etc. He always inspects their laws and the development of their meaning from a cross-history perspective.The forth chapter discusses transformation and it's method. It is concerned with Ch'ien Chung-shu's dialectical consideration of the contact relations between different texts and his study on transformation methods. Connection and transformation are the two core themes of intertextuality. Ch'ien Chung-shu has not only the conscious recognition of the connection of texts but also a dialectical understanding of questions that are related to connection and transformation such as similarity and difference, regularity and change, imitation and innovation etc. Meanwhile, his careful analysis of several transformation methods, especially 'imitation from the reverse side' shows Ch'ien Chung-shu's deep consideration of transformation and its value for literary criticism.The fifth chapter study the strategy of interpretation. It focuses the discussion on Ch'ien Chung-shu's strategy of the interpretation and methods of his literary criticism. The thesis first points out that Ch'ien Chung-shu's exposition of 'der Hemeneutische Zirkel', 'Vorsicht' and the purpose of the author etc. shows his interpretative thought pursuing and unearthing the most critical meaning through doing away with the stubborn habit of knowing things .Next, analysis is undertaken of Ch'ien Chung-shu's literary interpretation outlook of extracting the meaning according to the assemblence of discourse phenomena. Ch'ien Chung-shu's intertextuality interpretation method of 'connection of similar texts' and ' elucidation of texts by each other' is discussed and generalised into five patterns. Finally, there is an analysis of the broad context in Ch'ien Chung-shu's literary criticism and the strategy for reading and interpretation under such a context.The conclusion of the thesis ends with two perspectives. One perspective summarizes the intertextuality characteristics of Ch'ien Chung-shu's literary criticism.They are the literary origin outlook which emphasises that texts breed and nourish with each other;the literary production outlook which emphasises that texts imitate and transform with each other;the text constitution outlook which emphasises that texts move and be compatible with each other;the meaning interpretation outlook which emphasises that texts refer to and interpret with each other. The other perspective considers the enlightening meaning of the intertextuality characteristics in Ch'ien Chung-shu's literary criticism on the Sinicism process of western literary theory discourse. On the one hand,the practice of Chinese literary criticism test the conditions which ascertain whether the western discourse could be transplanted into the Chinese context. On the other hand,because of the close relationship between the practice of Chinese literary criticism and the discourse of Chinese literary theory,it supplise the main field for this transplant.In a word, Ch'ien Chung-shu's literary criticism has the distinct characteristics of intertextuality and is completely able to have a dialogue and complement with western Intertextuality. To reveal and unearth this question supplies not only a new perspective to think of the thought, the interest, the strategy and the method of Ch'ien Chung-shu's literary criticism, but is also an important reference for western Intertextuality to merge into the Chinese literary criticism context smoothly.