The Language Of The May Fourth Literary And Stylistic Rheological

The dissertation is to take the language as its cut-in, focusing on the exploration of the intrinsic relationship between the choice of colloquialism and the occurrence of the new literature during the period of the May Fourth.Chapter one and two, with a vertical perspective, aim to examine the historical inevitability of the choice of colloquialism by the new literature of the time.In Chapter one, the discourse is to regard the translation rash, the introduction of new words, and the colloquialism movement as the prelude to the reform of the May Fourth new literary language, and to reveal the inner principles of the transformation of Chinese literature from the early modernity to modernity by means of a skeletal clear-up and analysis.The dissertation supposes that the translation rash in early modern time is the inner momentum for the turn from classical language to modern one. In the cultural butt joint and the linguistic collision between China and the West, confronted with the Western languages, the predicament of Chinese classicalism appears. To resolve the frustration, on one side, Yan Fu and Lin Shu initiate a method with which Chinese is regarded as the core and foreign languages are forced to accommodate Chinese, which is called "free translation"; on the other, Lu Xun and his brothers begin a way to take foreign languages as the core and to make Chinese to adapt to them, which is called "literal translation". This marks the course of the classicalism from conservatism to opennessAlong with the translation rash, the importation of new words emerges as an outstanding social phenomenon. The welcome to and refusal of new words reflect the characteristic national psychology under the impact of the stronger cultures. The adoption of the great number of new words not only influences the traditional thinking but also silently improves the linguistic system of Chinese.The modern colloquialism movement happens posterior to the political reform. The intellectuals attempt to use colloquialism for enlightenment, popularization of education and elimination of communication obstacles in the lower classes. However, a utilitarian attitude to take colloquialism only as an instrument, and the overlook of the values of itself, and the rooted hierarchical ideas about language of the promoters themselves, all determine the movement to be halfway.The composition of the three trends mentioned above results in the reform of Chinese literature in the early modern time; however, the limited reform has not thoroughly changed the world of humanities dominated by classical Chinese, and the mixture of the old and new thoughts leads to a hard solubility of the new conception and the old style. Therefore, the thesis regards the series of reforms in the early modern time as the preliminary stage for the new literature of the May Fourth.Chapter two will sum up some theoretical propositions of the colloquialism movement in the May Fourth period, and analyze the conflicts of different values in the controversy between colloquialism and classicalism, and further reveal the historical significances of the turn from classicalism to colloquialism.It is supposed that the thoroughly linguistic shift is a requirement for the overthrow of the traditional culture, ideological enlightenment, and construction of new literature by the promoters. The transformation from the stress of the utility of colloquialism to the concerns for the aesthetics of it indicates the new literature promoters are approaching the essence of the language.The subversion of the classical language means a deep destruction of the traditional culture, which inevitably triggers a serious combat between the new and old force. The three debates concerning colloquialism between the radicals and conservatives will be surveyed and the theoretical principles and deflections of each party will be analyzed, by which the heavy price that has to pay for the modernization of Chinese language and the sorrow experienced by the literati while they are suffering from some sort of aphasia will be illustrated.Under the cooperation between the new literature movement and the new national language movement, the system of modern Chinese language gradually gets its formation, and the new literature begins to attempt to conceive and understand the world with the new language. Inspired by the spirits of the time of scientific reason and enlightenment, the colloquialism of the new literature is approaching to the Europeanizing road to truth, realism, coherence and minuteness. The linguistic choice and the reformation of Chinese language by the new literature have influenced Chinese literature in the twentieth centaury profoundly.Form Chapter three till Chapter five, with a horizontal perspective, it is to explore the characteristics of the style evolution in the framework of the new literary language criterion.The three literary forms, that is, poetry, novel and prose, of the May Fourth literature will be discussed based on a theory of forms, and the achievements by the new literature in the respects of the linguistic novelty and the changes of literary forms will be examined. At the same time, the three literary forms are taken as one system in a structuralist perspective, and the whole effect of the new literature will be synchronously analyzed and compared.Chapter three will mainly investigate the changes of literary forms of the poetry of the May Fourth. The classical poetry with its well-polished and sophisticated configuration, cadence, antithesis and imago has fallen into a kind of banality. While its strict forms and limits and imagines have become nothing but the fetters for the feeling expressions, the agent to produce aesthetic fatigue, and the convenient way for falsehood, so a revolution of literary forms will be a necessity.The replacement of classicalism by colloquialism in poetry manifests the inclination of the May Fourth literature to divorce the traditional aristocratic habitude for the return to the civilians. The abolishment of rules and forms, the liberation of styles, and the adoption of colloquialism, display its quest for an aesthetic style of naturalness, straightforwardness and simplicity. Its fresh patterns, optimistic spirit, and release of vitality, are the expressions of the new mentality of the creative subject. However, there is an undeniable fact that the price it has to pay for the freedom is its loosing configuration, its faded poetry, its linguistic straightness and its lack of melodiousness. In a word, the enthusiasm of the poet can not conceal the general mediocrity of the new colloquial poetry without traditional groundwork, so it gets on a rough road of adventure.Chapter four is to focus on the style innovation of fiction of the May Fourth. This form of literature has always been disdained as something disgraceful which has no way to the literary ivory tower. Before the May Fourth movement, literary world is full of anecdotal novels in classical language and colloquial stories in a dramaturgic way, and the works by "the school of mandarin duck and butterfly", catering for the low taste and falling in the rank of crafts for entertainment. Their formulae and fossilized narrative skills are unable to grasp the rich and colorful modern life and the complex modern mind. The linguistic reform hence inevitably leads to the reformation of the style of fiction.The changes of fiction of the May Fourth mainly occur in the three aspects. The first is its "introversive" inclination. Influenced by the romantic and modern novels from the West, some novelists begin to pay attention to the psychology and inner life of the people, which breaks the traditional stereotype of "telling stories" and form a modern type of fiction that is suitable for modern zest for reflection and sentimentality. The second is its seeking for the linguistic function for realism. Affected by the Western realistic novels, some novelists begin to pay high regards to imitation and representation of the world. The realistic, dispassionate and objective language is used in the works by "the school of life". But the realistic fashion restricts the exertion of imagination; therefore there hardly have been unrealistic and imaginative works in the May Fourth fiction. The third is the inclination of the linguistic intellectualization. Along with the growing press and publication, fiction has become the new favorites on every desk in every household. And as the values of fiction has got a recognition, it becomes a fashion that the new litterateur to use their pens on the novel manuscripts. The fiction as a literary form of oral performance has become a form of written text. It has got a higher rank and is with more color of intelligentsia. Its language has been Occidentalized but it is still with the sketch style of the classical language. The former is a consequence of the Western influence and the later is an expression of its traditional gene. However, the personalized writing leads to a distance from the common readers.Chapter five mainly surveys the evolution of styles of prose of the May Fourth. In the eve of the May Fourth movement, the pseudoclassicism of "the Tongcheng school" and "the refined scholarship school" has been abandoned. Colloquialism revives the prose and offers a channel for intellectual to express their personality and feelings. Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren respectively have created the style for random thoughts and the essay. The dissertation supposes that the brilliant achievements of the May Fourth should be due to both the Western influence and the profound legacy of Chinese traditional literature. Comparing with new poetry and fiction, new prose is more personal and intellectual, and more close to the tradition.Conclusion: a comprehensive reflection on the influence of the choice of colloquialism on the Chinese literature in the twentieth centuryIt is supposed in this dissertation that the choice of colloquialism has created the turn to modernity of the May Fourth literature and laid down the foundation for the literature in recent one hundred years as well. During the stage of the May Fourth, under the two banners of enlightenment and humanistic democracy the new literature builders, on one side, require literature to assume the responsibility to reform the society and, on the other, to express personality and to seek for its independence. During the construction of colloquialism, the linguistic choice stresses both its instrumental function of "conveying contents" and its ontological value of "exploring forms". The former in its overdone way leads to moralism, and the later in its extreme form leads to the ivory tower which will inevitably be rejected afterwards. The literature in the twentieth century has been swinging between the two extremes in different extents during different stages. It is still a problem in this century how to resolve the contradiction between the two extremes.