Romances Study

At the beginning phase of the Qing Dynasty, the stories of talented scholars and beauties were prevalent; but before long, there was a gradual decline. Later stories of the type served as negative models of literary creation. It is a phenomenon worthy of research. No convincing explanations have been offered until now. The dissertation tries to probe into the problem by using the theory of defamiliarizationThe theory of defamiliarization claims that literary works intend to evoke the aesthetical instincts of people. The process of evocation is the very process of aesthetical enjoyment. The essence of these stories lies in the creation of both vivid, lifelike and fresh, appealing female characters. These characters with defamiliarization effects should be peerless entities, who have not existed and will not exist.The dissertation falls into four parts. The first part deals with the rise and decline of the stories of talented scholars and beauties. These s.tories were prevalent at the beginning phase of the Qing Dynasty and utterly declined at the beginning phase of Hong LouMeng. The second part probe into the cause of prevalent of these stories. This part directs such successful stories as Yue Jiaoli, Pingshan Nenyan, Ying Yunqiao shape appealing female characters. They differ from females at the time while sharing some of their features. In a sense, they are both acquaintances and strangers. Part three discusses innate dei'ects of these stories ?the stereotyped characters, false details, dry narration, pallid language, all of which lead to the degradation of their defamiliarization values. Part four deals with the cause of decline of the stories. Stories of the type which appeared later on were modeled on the abovementioned successful ones, leading to automated reproductions. In spite of innovation efforts, there were no breakthroughs and they are no peers to their predecessors.The dissertation concludes that the rise of the stories are due to the successful description of fresh and appealing characters and the failure to do so is the very reason of their decline.