A Case Study Of The Writing Of Western Chinese Novel History

The study on the history of Chinese literature is in the cultural context of Chinese and Western culture from the very beginning, for more than 100 years, western sinologist has never stopped their process of study on the history of Chinese literature, while the research on the history of Chinese ancient novels has been included in the whole framework of the literature history, some independent research results have been produced as well. Overseas sinologists start from their own western perspective, use unconventional angles and methods inthe study of the history of Chinese ancient novels so that they have a new discovery in the classic construction, cultural heritage and national spirit shaping, at the same time, the research results also show that many theoretical innovations, including stages and styles. From the beginning of the last century to the beginning of this century, whether the whole literary history or the independent history of novel has published a lot of monographs, this thesis selects four of the most representative worksas the research object, hope to catch a glimpse of the macroscopictrend of the research on the history of Chinese novel from the western perspective, and provide some new ideas and references for the study of the history of Chinese novels in the future.This thesis is divided into four chapters, there are six parts altogether, including the introduction and conclusion, the specific contents are as follows:The first part of the introduction is to make a general description of the purpose and significance of the topic, then introduce the present situation of domestic and foreign research on this subject, meanwhile, generalize the basic situation of the history of Chinese literature and novel written by westerners.The first chapter starts from the introduction of the British sinologistHerbert Allen Giles and his sinological achievement and also A History of Chinese Literature, discusses the style construction ofA History of Chinese Literature,and the specific situation including its advantages and disadvantages, with emphasis on Giles’ selected translationand evaluation of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio and The Hong Lou Meng.The second chapter is the study of Hanan’s The Chinese Vernacular Story, introduces the general situation of Hanan and his sinology studies, discusses his theory of language style and narrative style in the vernacular novels, focuses on analyzingthe historical stage of the vernacular stories under his “Style Criteria” method.The third chapter is the study of Monika Motsch’s Die chinesische Erz?hlung: vom Altertum bis zur Neuzeit, discriminates the “Different” concept definitionand value judgment beyond the Confucian orthodoxy of “Erz?hlung”, details specificly of the stage and the theme of the study.The fourth chapter introduces the author ofThe Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, focuses on its “History of Literary Culture” and “History of History” theory, and the stage of literary history and content writing of novel historyunder the guidance of them, and pays more attention to the influence hot research such as material culture and city culture to the writing in the history of novel.The conclusion summarizes the history of Chinese ancient novels from the view of the west, which is due to the different academic traditions and cultural context, it is difficult to avoid the traces of The Other’s identity, but that’s just the point, which may provides some ideas and methods that are different from the past experience in the study of the history of novels in the future, thus promotes the development of the research of Chinese ancient novel history.