20～(th) Century: A Comparative Study Of Narrative Tradition Of Chinese And Western Novel

The rise of the study of novel is one of the most significant phenomena in the construction of the study of Chinese literature and art As a result of the introduction of the Western literary concepts, the Chinese novel, long recognized as a minor art, acquires its genuine cultural status. However, it does so hi the light of the Western understanding of the novel. Consequently, to study Chinese novels by adopting ideas, patterns and standards of Western novels is to exclude those works formerly classified as " novels ", even to ignore, misread and overshadow those unique characteristics of the narration of the Chinese novel Besides, the implied preference of putting fictionality above everything else affects the understanding of the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western narrative aesthetics, so that a study of Chinese and Western novels cannot be promoted. The present dissertation aims to reconstruct the branch of Chinese and Western novels, trace and expound their different narrative traditions, and to reconsider the success and defect of the related studies. Based on the narrative traditions of Chinese and Western novels, the dissertation exposes the disadvantages brought about to novel study by " the linguistic turn " of the 20* century Western aesthetics, and argues that recording actual events is one of the essential qualities of literature instead of " fictionality ", and that " fictionality " is a pseudo-proposition hi literary theory, which should be replaced by " metamorphosis " or " imagination", thus holding that all narration is the recording of actual events. Meanwhile, the dissertation puts forward some original views concerning the ethical safety in the narration of Chinese and Western novels and the modernization of the traditional narration. Therefore, the present dissertation probes into one of the important topics in the reconstruction of the branch of the Chinese and Western novel.