Study On The Literary Language Of Eclipse

Mao Dun constructs a linguistic experimental field in Eclipse. With contemporary Chinese vernacular as the keynote, he blends Europeanized Chinese, classical Chinese, ancient vernacular as well as spoken Chinese into one entity, which creates a unique vernacular genre– poetic realism. Eclipse is the most important literary sample of China's contemporary novels. However, long both the domestic and overseas academics haven't specifically expounded on the linguistic language of Eclipse over a long period of time . In most cases it's analyzed as one of the work's artistic characteristics. Even in the few expositions that do touch upon this subject, it's mostly analyzed by artistic methods and seldom by linguistic ones, not to speak of using the two approaches combined.This paper tries to start from the groundwork of Chinese language, combine the research methods of linguistics and arts, and make use of contemporary linguistic theories such as functional stylistics and structural semantics, to fathom the artistic functions and literary themes of Eclipse. When talking about the linguistic styles of Eclipse, people tend to simply use the term"Europeanized"to describe it all. However, compared to the other vernacular novels in the same era, Mao Dun doesn't appear to be conspicuously Europeanized, let alone being a typical representative of Europeanized novels. The styles of literary language have always been a hot topic and a tricky one: Prudent analyses are liable to become empty words, while digging deep can easily end up being too abstract. To break away from this"introspective"mode of critique, this paper opts to analyze such linguistic phenomena as choice of words, grammatical structures and rhetorical strategies, among others, to elaborate on the diverse yet unified linguistic styles of Eclipse. Concerning the linguistic features of Eclipse, researchers tend to see more of its solemn tone than of its humorous effect. Through concrete analysis of literary samples, we can also discover that since the May 4th New Cultural Movement, Mao Dun persists in combining phonetic, grammar, rhetoric and other linguistic elements to probe into literary language. Although Mao Dun isn't a linguist, his linguistic propositions and practices constitute a rich and inexhaustible mine.Mao Dun plays an irreplaceable role in exploring the writing styles of contemporary vernacular. Eclipse indicates the starting point of Mao Dun's novelistic endeavors as well as the first culmination. In terms of the achievements in literary language, one can see that Eclipse roughly sets the linguistic styles of his novels. In his ensuing works such as Mid-night, Erosion, and Red Frosty Leaves, new scenes are presented, but unable to deviating from the fundamental styles set in the early stage. This research examines Eclipse in the perspective of the development history of China's contemporary novels. The literary language of Eclipse has been influencing the linguistic styles of China's contemporary novels since 1930s, and to a large extent reflects the transformative process of China's contemporary literary language. More importantly, Eclipse is conducive for us to have a better understanding of the quagmire facing China's contemporary literary language. The linguistic practices of Mao Dun's early endeavors basically shake off the shackles of the either/or confrontation of binary language. Compared to most of the writers of the May 4th period, he's more rational in handling the multiple relationships between contemporary and traditional, foreign and local, spoken and written languages. These approaches still apply today.It's a significant and brand new topic to identify and recognize the value of the literary language of Eclipse from the multi-dimensional perspectives of literary language. The paper comprises of five parts. Chapter One elaborates on the stylistic issue of Eclipse discussing the docking and application of traditional language and foreign language. Chapter Two starts from the perspective of linguistic functions to seek the aesthetic functions and thematic connotations of the language used in Eclipse. Chapter Three interprets the diverse yet unified linguistic style of Eclipse and the reason behind. Chapter Four analyzes the status and role of the language of Eclipse in the history of China's contemporary novels. Chapter Five taps into the linguistic propositions of Mao Dun and its relationship with Eclipse.