An Ethno-cultural Interpretation Of Malchinkuu's Novels

Malchinkuu is regarded as pioneer and flagman of Mongolian contemporary literature, as well as one of the main representatives of the well-known first-generation ethnic minority writers in the history of Chinese contemporary literature. One may state that the study (in a broad sense) on Malchikuu and his works began simultaneously with his literary creation. The studies on Malchikuu and his works during the first seventeen years after the foundation of the People's Republic of China often give one the impression of a piecemeal and extemporaneous review, always put particular emphasis just on judgment of a certain work, or a certain genre, or even a certain aspect of a work. During the Cultural Revolution, the so-called criticism articles on Malchikuu may be called "absolutely ridiculous". His works turned out to be "harmful writings","black books", and "literature which betrays the Country". With the start of the "new period", not a few pertinent articles appeared, re-evaluating Malchikuu and his works. It is especially gratifying to mention that, since the1990s, the number of the scholars who occupy themselves with the study on Malchinkuu is increasing, and several monographs have been published. In their works, the scholars, following different methods and angles, have conducted thorough observations of Malchinkuu and his works, especially his novels, which could undoubtedly serve as good reference to our study.As a representative of steppe novelists, Malchinkuu brought up in the geographical and humanistic environments of steppe culture. He is a Mongolian contemporary writer who started his literary career with the wide-ranging mind which is rooted in the steppe culture. He has a profound understanding of steppe culture, inasmuch as his novels endeavored to display not only Mongolian contemporary culture, but also the traditional one. The very quality of his novels earned him a reputation as an inheritor and a disseminator of Mongolian traditional and contemporary culture. Based on this understanding, the present paper attempts to investigate Malchinkuu's novels from an ethno-cultural perspective.This paper endeavors to follow the method of literary and cultural studies, also taking into account some other relevant methods such as social-historical analysis, textual study, comparative study, and so on. When applying all these methods, special attention is paid to penetrating a basic idea, i. e.:The literary work is not an isolated system, but a three-dimensional interactive dynamic system. Its discourse holds together the national aesthetic sense of the main body in literary creation, the social-cultural milieu, and the cultural identity and acceptance psychology of readers. In this paper, emphasis will be laid on the investigation of the relations between literary text and national culture, and the connotation of the literary text as an ethno-cultural symbol.This dissertation consists of seven parts:introduction, the main body (five chapters), and conclusion.The first part,"Introduction", provides a survey of literature, i. e., a brief introduction to Malchinkuu's novels; reviews the studies on Manchikuu and his literary creation in the past; and explains the goals, meaning, and methodology of the study.Chapter One,"Manchinkuu and the Novels of Steppe Culture," gives an overview of Chinese-language literary creation by Mongols in the history, considers Chinese-language literary creation by Mongols has a long history and has exerted a deep influence on contemporary Chinese-language novels by Mongols; then provides an analysis and interpretation of the novels of steppe culture and the relevant studies; on the basis of which shrives to indicate Malchinkuu is a pioneer and practitioner of the novels of Mongolian steppe culture.Chapter Two,"Interpretation of the Cultural Orientation of Malchinkuu," considers that Malchinkuu was brought up in the wide-ranging mind and life of struggles of the Inner Mongolian steppe. Influenced by Mongolian traditional literature, he has absorbed nourishment from Mongolian folk literature, and also referred his readers to foreign literature.Chapter Three,"Ethno-Cultural Connotation of Malchinkuu's Novels I" considers that landscape painting and genre painting are the organic components of ethno-cultural connotation of novels. Malchinkuu is good at and lay stress on description of landscape and genre painting, and regards this as a pursuit of reflecting ethno-cultural features. His novels have reflected every corner of life on the new Mongolian steppe.Chapter Four,"Ethno-Cultural Connotation of Malchinkuu's Novels â…¡," is devoted to analyses of the characters in Malchinkuu's novels. Malchinkuu made great efforts to nationalize his characters, and portrays many typical characters of Mongols of the present day. This is a contribution to the "characters gallery" of Mongolian literature. And the subjects of the "characters gallery" were shown to be the multigenerational Mongolian family in the specific historical period, as "leading a brand new life from the fall". His deep understanding of the cultural psychology, religious position and philosophy of life of the Mongols enabled his works to show very distinctive ethno-cultural features.Chapter Five,"The Cultural Origin of the Art Form of Malchinkuu's Novels," is divided into four parts:I."The inheritance and development of Mongolian epics and folk songs":Malchinkuu inherited the excellent tradition of Mongolian literature in his novels, the folk songs and epics, i. e., he quoted a lot from the folk song forms and characteristics of epic, to fill his novels with passion of poem and vividness of epic stories. â…¡."The Inheritanee and Development of Unique Imagery of Mongolian Literature":Some certain imagery possesses unique meaning, i. e.,"steppe","horse","hero","spring","journey" etc. in Mongolian literature. Thus they have been interpreted and analyzed in Malchinkuu's Novels. III."The exploration and success of the nationalization of the language":though he wrote in Chinese, he explored actively in nationalization of the language and made success. His novels are rich in national features, distributing distinct flavor of steppe culture. IV."The Inheritance and Development of the Methodology of Manifestation, and Artistic Skills":Involving two aspects.1. The embodiment of national culture in Malchinkuu's writing techniques,"metaphor" and "association".2. His active attempts to surpass the tradition of national literature and innovation. He is successful in both aspects.In Conclusion, the summary of the whole dissertation, hopes are put forward on study of Malchinkuu's novels. Though the study of Malchinkuu's novels achieved great success, certain domains still needs further focus, such as his prose, film literature etc.