| Wu Jianren, a professional novelist growing from a tabloid proprietor, has made tremendous achievements in fictional creation, which are integral parts of the New Novel accomplishments. He is known for both his biggest output and pioneering spirit in the late-Qing "Literary Revolution". Wu's works, either in content or artistic form, are of a transitional feature of Chinese novels from classical to modern times. Wu's fictional studies are academically valuable with a great expanse of development. The thesis follows this composition: firstly, it places his works into the specific historical context, and examines the specific cultural milieu in Shanghai Settlement, Wu's cultural role and his fervent social sentiments in the transitional period; secondly, it explores comprehensively and objectively the thematic implications of his works in three aspects: realistic criticism, moral salvation and utopian idealism; thirdly, it makes synchronic and diachronic studies of his narrative techniques and stylistic awareness manifested in his fictional texts. This thesis uses a comprehensive approach: it combines macro-study with micro-analysis, and cultural/historical perspective with narratology as well as stylistics. It intends to investigate both the late-Qing overall social and cultural situation, and the specific point of Wu's works in that special context. Empirical analysis and close reading are the major methods, and moreover, the paper sticks to both a historical sense of "returning to the original state" and an academic reasoning of "conclusion following from historical facts". Wu Jianren's academic career was shaped by historical opportunities, such as the prosperous Shanghai Settlement, literary consumptive market, fictional dissemination, author's remuneration regulation, impacts from outside the country, the rising of "revolution in fictional world" and new ideas about fictional prose; Wu's declining family conditions forced him to make a living by writing before adulthood; his wide interest in unorthodox theories, versatile cultural attainments, cynical attitudes and humorous traits enabled him to follow the new profession; as a novelist with conscience, Wu Jianren had a strong sense of anxiety and intense social sentiments. Wu Jianren's novels cover three major themes: realistic criticism, moral salvation and Utopian idealism. As exposition and criticism are the keynotes of the late-Qing novels, Wu's realistic criticism is to expose the moral paralysis pervasive in that society, mainly focusing on those "odd phenomena" in such fields as family, officialdom, politics and metropolis infested with foreign adventures. Behind Wu's realistic criticism lies his value strongpoint of "our intrinsic moral standards", but for him, the prescription to cure the world is to "restore our intrinsic moral standards". For long, Chinese traditional scholars have always cherished a strange political fantasy of saving the country by observing traditional moral standards, from which many New Novel writers, including Wu Jianren, failed to escape. Actually, based on the reasonable parts in Chinese ancient classics, Wu's proposition is, of a sort, a reformed moral code with a modernized coloring, but it is practically hard for Wu Jianren to realize his dream of "repairing the sky" either by a new interpretation of affect and humanity of "loyalty, filialness, chastity and justice" or an excessive reliance on moral standards of "etiquette, morality and integrity". Thus, by "civilized land", Wu Jianren draws a Utopian picture of technology, politics and education, and in his own way, participates in a grand narration of building a wealthy country and achieving a universal harmony of the world, which many people with lofty ideals had dreamed of. Wu's "civilized land" is the most fascinating and insightful of all those Utopian novels at the dawn of the 20th century, and his "idealistic land"—a perfect unity of oriental traditional virtues and western technological civilization, implies the author's bes...
|
PDF Full Text Request