Another Appeal To Modernity

Children's literature is faced with not only the serious situation of "literature termination" but also the risk of losing its legitimacy indicated by the "disappearance of childhood" in image times. Consequently the relevance between images and children's literature has aroused wide attention and heated debate in the West nowadays. However, it doesn't attract adequate attention in China. In fact, Chinese children's literature has been connected with pictures since it budded. The first children's books appeared with words intermingled with pictures in the late Qing Dynasty. Later, the pictures in the children's books became more splendid and changed the way of presentation and reading used in children's literature by their direct participation in narration. They were one of the major driving factors resulting in the emergence of children's literature and its modernity and ultimately led it into the cultural change of the "pictorial turn". It is impossible to answer the questions like "Where does children's literature come and go in image times" without a profound and careful study of the children's literature images.Unfortunately, the previous studies of images only centered around one style of the children's literature-picture books, and simply focused on the contemporary. They lacked an overall view of the relationship between images and children's literature as well as a historical perspective of the performance of the images in the emergence period of children's literature. Obscured for long image study has become a blind zone in the research of children's literature, which unavoidably brings about the limitations of some existing theses on children's literature. They need to be modified and even revised. Through possession of predecessors rarely specific, vivid image material and putting 254 important pictures contained in the paper, this study found that it was a period of various possibilities from the late Qing Dynasty to the eve of the Anti-Japanese War, during which the modern multi-dimensional exploration and expression of image texts had become the most attractive narrative way in children's literature. Examining the image texts forgotten in the history this thesis attempts to discuss how the development of image narration influenced children's literature and people's construction of "childhood" and finally reveal the "repressed" appeal to modernity in children's literature.Introduction:This thesis first makes a literature review. Then before engaging in archaeological studies of the relative knowledge since the late Qing Dynasty it clarifies three ideas that there is difference between children's literature and children's books, that picture stories are included in children's literature, and that just like words pictures need to be acquired.Chapter I:Compared with the multiple preparations in the emergence period of children's literature our existing research is relatively flimsy. We need abundant historical details to enrich our study. In this chapter we examine some vivid source materials from the children's books since the late Qing Dynasty, such as cover pictures, illustrations, inside pages, ad pictures, etc. and discuss the complexity and multiple preparations of the emergence period of children's literature.Chapter II:As the images in children's literature became from single to multiple, from narrative embellishment to direct involvement in narration a new story style-picture story narrated by multiple pictures-gradually came into being. The practice of image narration hasn't only quietly changed the way of presentation and reading used in children's literature but also walked into people's life with a changeable attitude, which is a mirror reflection of the rapid development of western children's literature image narration in China since 19th and 20th century. Obviously, the previous studies didn't completely realize it.Chapter III:"Childhood" is the origin of children's literature. People have long been concerned about how words construct "childhood" in children's literature but lack in-depth study of images. Whereas, the images of children in the pictures had realized the transformation from traditional to modem by imitation of the West during the period from the late Qing Dynasty to the eve of the Anti-Japanese War. The "childhood" constructed by the children's costumes, toys, life scenes and spirits in the pictures showed a sight of a modem, rich Western pleasure. The construction of the simple and transparent "imagined communities" deeply influenced the adult's general hypothesis of "childhood" and thus played a great catalytic role in the modem transformation of children's literature.Chapterâ…£:When exploring the intertextuality of words and pictures in children's literature the present studies always focus on the mergence of words and pictures. However, as two narrative means there must be a rift between words and pictures. The huge narrative tension resulted from the rift has enormously broadened the research space for children's literature. Taking the urchin motif as an example, which has tremendous imagination and comment room, the thesis unfolds its discussion. The usual model followed by the image narration featuring urchins is to show entertainment with pioneer color arising from the urchins'challenge to the adults by images and to discipline urchins by words. The most valuable point to be discussed is that although both subject to time limitations the images show modem view different from the words. By imitation of the West the construction of "childhood" was an illusory narration due to the social fact that "childhood" was far from being "thinking methods and resources". On the one hand, the discord between words and images was embodied by the fact that the appeal of image narration to modernity was repressed and obscured by the backwardness of word narration. On the other hand, the deficiency of images enlightening modernity limited their positive influence on children's literature.Chapter V:This chapter investigates the literati's theoretical and practical exploration of children's literature images in modern times and points out that the importance of image narration was a product of the literati's common efforts. Lu Xun, who was fond of art in his childhood, regarded images as a good enlightenment "weapon" helping people out of ignorance and towards modernity. He established the legitimacy of image narration, approved the entertainment of pictures, advocated for children's art and applied visual techniques in children's literature. As a result his works have a strong sense of visual imagery and color impact. The pioneer spirit of enlightenment in Zhou Zuoren's criticism is still relevant even today though his children-oriented idea mismatched the domestic children's literature image texts poorly printed and lack of literariness. Zheng Zhenduo, who had high art accomplishment, created the early form of modern picture books-picture stories. Also, he wrote a lot and tried different styles. He made a great contribution to the development of image narration in Chinese children's literature. As a writer and cartoonist Feng Zikai explored "the similarity between writing and painting" both in theory and in practice. "The children image" in his paintings was the mergence of words and pictures in the background of traditional culture. All in all, the sense of image narration was superimposed and changed continuously and eventually became a modern cultural choice thanks to many writers' discussion of the image narration in children's literature.Conclusion:This part discusses how modern children's literature classics are being mutilated and simplified in the process of pictorialization in the contemporary "era of reading pictures". With losing it's role of the enlightenment pioneer the negative side of visual culture has begun to unfold. The relevant comments like "literature termination" and "disappearance of childhood" remind us to be alert to the surfeit of image narration presently.