A Study On Preface Of Selections Of Novels In The Great Series Of The New Literature 1917-1927

The Great Series of the New Literature 1917-1927(which will be called The Great Series for short hereafter),is a series of books published by Shanghai Liangyou Books Pressing Corp.during 1935 and 1936 with Zhao Jiabi as its editor in chief.The Great Series consists of ten volumes,including theories,works and historical documents,and it makes an overall summary of the development of new literature in the "first ten years"(1917—1927)since the "Literary Revolution", which,on the one hand,reserves a great number of literary historical documents of vital importance,and on the other hand,makes a systematic commentary on every aspect of new literature development,exerting a far-reaching and proufound influence.Presently,The Great Series is deemed as the cornerstone of "Chinese Modern Literature" and of great importance to the development of this field.The various historical documents it reserves makes it an indispensable reference and its influence upon culture and literary development attacts more and more attentions from the acadamia and it is even hornored as a "classic" on culture publication and study.Based on a comprehensive review and assortment of the research on The Great Series in the academic fields since its publication,this dissertation detects an inadequate attention upon the great significance of compilers' succcess in compiling The Great Series.Therefore,the most prominent and influencial genre in the 20^th century literary development—"novel",in this case,the Preface of Selections of Novels(three volumes of The Great Series)was chosen for further study,in an attempt to ahieve a breakthrough.As a whole,in the light of editorial theories, literary theories and so on,this dissertation focuses on the great significance of three compilers of Selections of Novels—Mao Dun,Lu Xun and Zheng Boqi,based on the specfic explorations of their editorial spirits and literary views reflected in the Preface of Selections of Novels which are themselves the study objects.This dissertation consists of seven chapters.After a neat introduction of the The Great Series which embraces Preface of Selections of Novels,Chapter One expounds briefly on the "historical and cultural context" relevant to the study of The Great Series and Preface of Selections of Novels, and reveals the relatively weak points in the study of The Great Series upon retrospect of its main research discoveries since its publication.Therefore,the author puts forward her research perspective—"compilers" research.Chapter Two probes into the feasibility of "compilers" research based on the special editorial way of The Great Series which was summarized as "texts plus preface of seleced works" model by the publishing field at quite an early time. "Literary selections" is an editorial way of long history and sucecessful "selected works" usually contain the compilers' editorial spirits,values,literary views etc.with "preface of selected works" reflecting the compilers' spiritual connotations on these aspects.Thanks to the unique design of Zhao Jiabi,Preface of Selections of Novels completes the overall "commentary" upon the creation of novels in the first decade, which is a pioneering exploitation of the traditional function of preface as well as the internal basis on which the compilers' spiritual connotations will be studied.Chapter Three maily focuses on a brief introduction to the content of Preface of Selections of Novels,thus paving the way for the following research.Upon analysis and comparison,Chapter Four explores the commonness among the three Prefaces of Selections of Novels,and summarizes the compilers' same "new literature" values depicted there and elaborates briely on the influence of their "literary views".Chapter Five makes an overall summarization of the critical achievements on the three Prefaces of Selections of Novels.In Section One,the status of the three Prefaces of Selections of Novels in the "critical history of novels" is analysized in light of the critical theory development in the first decade.In Section Two,the main achievements of Mao Dun's Preface of Selections of NovelsⅠare explained, pointing out its summary function on "the creation tradition of realistic novels in the first decade".In Section Three,the main achievements of Zheng Boqi's Preface of Selections of NovelsⅢare elaborated,exploring his creation of the preface with reference to the wrting structure of Mao Dun's equivalent writing and his latent psychology to strive after the "coequal" literary and historical status for Creation Association with Literature Association.His importance in summarizing "the romantic tradition of novel creation in the first decade" is also pointed out.In Section Four,Lu Xun's unique "great master's critic" upon Preface of Selections of NovelsⅡis confirmed,and his critical features and essential theoretical tendency are further expounded.In Section Five,the compilers' compiling principles reflected in their literary views and critical features are summarized,and a theoretical summarization of the constructive critical terms on "novel" in the three Prefaces of Selections of Novels-problem novel,Jituo novel,Shenbian novel and perverse novel is made.Chapter Six focuses on the reasons why Selections of Novels became a classic and points out the special influence upon it by the historical and cultural context of the "May 4^thof 1919 era".Special attention is paid to the impact of compilers' precise master of the spirits of the times and their preference to advanced culture upon the Selections of Novels' coming into being of a classic.Chapter Seven closely examines the Prefaces of Selections of Novels in the contemporary cultural context,points out the cultural inspirations upon contemporary intellecturals brought by the compilers' cultural activities and their achievements and concludes the dissertation.Based on a comprehensive elaboration,this dissertation gives prominence to the specific values and vital importance of the compilers of Selections of Novels in their editorial participations in The Great Series,bringing forth the author's reflections and research discoveries on this issue,hoping to promote the study of The Great Series.