On The Novel Writing Featuring Minority Groups By Writers Of The Han Nationality During "the Seventeen Years" From The Perspective Of Nation-building

Ever since the emergence of vernacular literature,Han writers have devoted many works featuring minority ethnic groups,which has become a remarkable phenomenon in the Chinese literature world.However,previous researches focused more on literature works featuring minority ethnic groups by Han writers after the new period from the mere perspective of cross-culture writing and recognition of culture identity than those works that were created during “The Seventeen Years”.And the little reference found on the subject only discusses a very small part of the trend and classified them into the category of “border literature” or “literature of minority ethnic groups”.This paper will discuss the phenomenon where national consciousness emerged and its influence on the literature production in the period of the founding of new China on the basis of a holistic perception of novels created in that period.The paper consists of three parts: introduction,body part and conclusion.And research methodology contains presenting historical materials,induction and analytic approach with a careful study of the text.Then the theory of nationality will be adopted to elucidate general characteristics of the novels in “The Seventeen Years” by Han writers and theory and imagology will be employed to interpret the figures.Introduction mainly focuses on the definition of terms such as state of nationality,nation and literary production featuring minority ethnic groups by Han writers;body part consists of three parts;conclusion discusses simultaneously the trend of literary production featuring minority ethnic groups by Han writers,and the inheritance and deepening between the two.The first chapter discusses the fact that literature was employed to build the republic and national consciousness in the period of new China,which was also served as the context where literary production featuring minority ethnic groups by Han writers were encouraged.Most of all,the founding of new China lead to the founding of the republic,and while it was necessary for all ethnic groups to deepen their recognition and to live as a whole community,literature and art should serve strongly as a means of popularization to pay a close attention to life and work and historical process of minority ethnic groups.The second chapter contains the fact that within the context of building the nation Han writers expounded in their novels that minority ethnic groups had been as important as main ones in seeking development from three aspects: the history,the present and the future.When discussing the fight between the old and new right of speech of the two regimes,narrative mode of binary opposition was adopted to unveil the deterioration of the old system and to present the legitimacy of the nation.Amid the process,minority ethnic groups in the novels were depicted with many national characteristics,such as national banner,national anthem,leaders and army,and some of their festivals were employed to conduct recognition.The third chapter reflects the fact that figures in the novels were excessively idealized due to the overstatement of the building of the state nationality---figures with national consciousness were beautified while those unaware ones were defamed.The tradition and custom of minorities were avoided,and figures of minority teens were characterized without consideration to the historical reference.