A Study Of Chinese Modern Poetic Novels

This research concentrates on Chinese modern poetic fictions. Firstly, we need to clarify the definition of poetic fiction. Compared with other similar definitions, such as lyric fiction, prose fiction, lyric-poetry fiction, prose-poetry fiction and Freehand Novel, here comes our definition:this is a genre of modern novel with rich inward-looking lyric quality. Rather than paying attention to the story plots, the narrative structures or the images of the characters, the poetic fiction cares more about creating some whole poetic atmosphere with subtle poetic language, symbolic metaphor and seemly loose structure. These fictions attract and infect the readers by their special mood, emotion and sentiment which expresses the poetic feeling of the writer about world and life.In introduction, we will survey the origin of poetic fictions, and then review their achievements and status.There are five chapters in this thesis.The first chapter intends to discuss the two main influences of the modern poetic fiction:the Chinese lyric tradition and the modern western novels. The modern poetic fiction was obviously affected by the Chinese lyric tradition in valuing the inner world of oneself, creating the mood of the words and pursuing "the images outside exiting, the implication of the words", etc. At the same time, western modern novels were the other influence in forms and spirit correspondingly. The modern poetic fiction found some proper compromise between the Chinese lyric tradition and modern western novels.This could be seen as the poetic fictions unique value in the construction of poetics.The second chapter reviews every period in its development and tries to abstract the main characteristics of each period. From its appearance in1920’s to its eventually development in30’s, and then further into the40’s ultimately evolution in debt of the more and more stressful social reality. And in this process, the authors had experienced some subtle changes in dealing with the relations between the texts and the reality. As a whole, the poetic fiction insisted its own aesthetic introspective way to present and understand the reality and zeitgeist, and yet managed to keep a distance from them.The third chapter discusses series of inquiries into the poetic fiction’s generate mechanism, which was obviously the authors major and real interest. Why the authors chose this kind of genre to express their inner lives? Or, how did the poetic fictions generate? It was the intentional structure in the author’s mind that determined the expressions on the world firstly, i.e. the prerequisite of poetic novel. While the author chose to sink into their inner world and enter the space far from the reality to find the inner tranquility. This attitude of avoiding reality deliberately showed their dissatisfaction with the real world, and also reflected their pursuits of ideal life. Therefore, to attach with the past world or a traditional world which was fading frequently, this genre had become the general way that the author could continue to pursue their poetic dreams. However, at the same time, lots of authors still felt anxiety about the negative effects of modern social civilization. They did not only find their own mind antidote in the form of poetic novel, but also had deep reflections on the modern civilization.The next chapter attempts to research the poetic themes of these fictions. Poetic fictions had formed their own special themes, such as memory, hometown, childhood and dream, etc. These topics, which reappeared in poetic fictions frequently, had already transcended their practical meanings. They could be understood as some general signifiers rather than their implications of reality and became certain spiritual dimensions the author pursued, i.e. a pathway to value the life itself.The last chapter concentrates on the two basic forms of existence in poetic fiction:time and space. There were mach difference between poetic fictions and the narratives in the way of dealing with the time and space. As for time, most poetic fictions expressed an attitude of "backwards", that was to say, their valued past rather than the present and the future. Specifically, there were three main expression strategies about time:retrospective, static and eternal. As for the space, poetic fictions had their unique experiences and outstanding exhibitions. On one hand, they inherited the creative images and artistic conceptions from Chinese lyric tradition, which brought out the effect of meaningful poetic imaginations and artistic conceptions by "making the reality of narrative virtual and the lyric express concrete"; on the other hand, it had drawn out the experiences of spatial forms in the modern western novels and finished the reconstruction by means of juxtaposition and jumping of the space scenes. Some authors even attempted to use spatial displacements instead of the time structure as some new structure. After the special reform of time and space, an ideal poetic realm would be presented through the author’s "inner-transformation" in the poetic fiction.The last part of the article tries to summary the reason why poetic fiction suffered "cold reception" in the modern literature study and what its unique existence value were.