Late Qing Exposes The Dissemination Of Research

The late Qing Dynasty has witnessed many crisis—the survival of Chinese nation, the abuse of feudal autocracy, and the fall of traditional cultural heritage—all of which were intensified by the Western gunfire and overshadowed by Western culture. The intellectuals then were very much concerned about the fate of the nation, and started exploring ways to change the situation. Under the encouragement of"Novel Revaluation"by Liang Qichao, novel had turned from"peripheral"to"central"literature and had become a tool to reveal social problems and to improve society. Many intellectuals with a strong sense of social responsibility began writing novel as a weapon, to reflect social reality, to expose evilness, to save the nation, and to express their ideas freely. Because of the panoramic revelation of the political, economic, cultural, moral and ethic of the society, novels produced at this"special historical point", which mainly aim at exposure and criticism, became the dominant type of late Qing literature—the"novel of denunciation"as per Lu Xun.This paper holds it that the inception and prosperity of denunciative novels is resulted from the"special historical point"and"appeal to popular taste". It echoed the revolution and the realist trend, contained a wealth of ideas and meanings in the content, turned from the elegant to vulgar in the form, and reflected the transition from ancient to modern novels. Moreover, the late Qing denunciative novels had well applied the art of repetition to achieve the effect of polymerization, which further enhanced the information environment. The virtual social context produced by the novel contributes to the formation of public opinion, making maneuvering, responsive media waves, encouraging people to take action. All of these played a role in the social transitions and revolution.This paper applied Lasswell's classic mode of transmission as well as the views of George Gerbner as the theoretical framework. Altogether seven chapters and one extra discussion session were written. The paper has presented in these seven chapters the in-depth and panoramic analysis of late Qing denunciative novel phenomenon from communication environment, communication subject, the information (based on information science and narratology, and also in story, discourse and narrative), mode of communication, the audience, and the effect. The last session of discussion concluded the late Qing denunciative novels using systematic feature of communication. The structure of this paper is as below:Chapter One analyzes the communication environment of late Qing denunciative novels. The decline of the late Qing political power and the unique existence of foreign settlement, the revolution of the novels, and changes in the media have constituted the communication environment for the inception and prosperity of the denunciative novels. Among them, the social-political situation of late Qing and the revolution of the novels are the direct cause for the popular style of the denunciative novels.Chapter Two studies the subject of communication. This chapter first analyzes the initiator of denunciative novels from the author and the media organization. The novelists are marginalized secular intellectuals with both traditional patriotic social sentiments and commercial pursuits in the literature. Between the"national concerns"and"personal survivals", they had a very difficult time. Meanwhile, the media organizations as the"gate-keeper"had the decision making power, which showed a mixed characteristic of educating and profit-making.Chapter Three looks into the"story"of the denunciative novels. The novels shows very rich thoughts, exposed and criticized the political autocracy, the corruption of the government, the decline of the moral, ethic climate, and other situations in economic and cultural reality, altogether expressing a strong sentiment of nationalism and patriotism.Chapter Four analyzes"discourse"of the denunciative novels. First, the light was shed to the social environment of communication—The Vernacular Movement. Then focuses was given to the communication discourses. The language of the denunciative novels has a combination of simple and obvious classical and popular vernacular language features, and a strong sense of the media discourse and literary feature. The combination of the classical and vernacular language also showed a kind of dilemma subconsciously by the novel authors between the love of traditional culture and the need for literature market. The directness of expression shows the determination to change reality of the novelists.Chapter Five studies the"narratives"of the denunciative novels. The narrative of denunciative novels shows both traditional and modern features. On the other hand, the"cross-border"vision in the novels reveals the inability to harmonize the traditional narrative and western novel skills, and expresses a strong social sentiment of the author. The collection type, the series type, and travel-notes type of the narrative structure has adopted some elements from"Unofficial History of Confucian Scholars", but more often than not influenced by the modern mass media and rise of readership. The repetition style of narration sets the public agenda, helping to form public opinion in favor of social changes.Chapter Six presents the communication mode of the denunciative novels. Newspapers, magazines, periodicals and pamphlets from printing press have greatly enhanced the popularity of the denunciative novels. The advertising, subscriptions, and distribution offices, etc. have to a large extent promoted the sales and communication space. The pictorial communication embedded in the novels has captured the eyes, making the attention economy.Chapter Seven studies the audience and communication effect of the denunciative novels. In terms of the audience, the virtual readers and real readers have certain degree of laps. The mode of communication has reached the mass, and held strong readership awareness. The novel altogether shows"appeal to the popular taste"trend. In terms of the communication effect, the denunciative novels has not only achieved micro effect, greatly enlarged the space for literature, but also has constructed a virtual informational social context, further inform the audience of the government corruption and through periods of disseminate, gathered"collective effect", forming a strong public opinion. To a certain extent, these have call into action to make social changes.The discussion session concluded that the late Qing denunciative novels are resulted from the"special historical point"and"appeal to popular taste". The social reality and marketization of communication affects the content and form of the novels, making it look both like the"elegant"educator and the"vulgar"profit maker, as a result shows the changes in the feature of literature. Last but not least, although the expectations from the readers has finally caused the perish of the late Qing denunciative novels, its position in the literature history and cultural history and its accomplishments in communication effects are worth further studies.