A Research On Body Discourse In Fiction May4^th Period

The literature of May4th period is that of human being. The existence of body is asymbol of human being. The arousal of humankind in May4thperiod finds theimportance of body once more, which both furthers the development of social politics,economic, culture and science and flourishes the literature concerned with poems, proses,novels, stories, dramas and films. Among all of them, fiction is typical. Fiction hasgained the unprecedented high status since the late Qing Dynasty, from the low status intraditional literature to Fiction Revolutionary proposed by Qichao Liang. Besides, fictionnarrative itself is equal to body narrative. Fiction creation itself is equal to body writing.There is a close affinity between fiction and body. Therefore, it is possible for thisdissertation to view fiction of May4th Period in bodily perspective, which is the valueand significance of this title selected.Body Discourse is manifested in ideological appeal, aesthetic patterns and subject’swriting practice of May4th Fiction. So it can reveal the true aspects of humankind and astate of being by selecting fiction, as a type of literature. It can also reveal the essence offiction with bodily perspective, which is to inquire the possibility of humankind’sself-existence and to think about being poetically.(Milan Kundera’s point of view).Fiction is a kind of live literature. It has the mysterious strength. i.e. Fiction had knownunconsciousness before Freud, class struggle before Marx, and phenomenology beforephenomenologists (inquiring the fundamental nature of the human condition).①Because of the foresight of fiction, the dissertation studies fiction of May4thPeriodfrom the perspective of body discourse in order that we can see through culture, society,politics, ethics and aesthetics in May4thPeriod. Therefore, the dissertation articulates theideological appeal, aesthetic patterns and creative subject of the May4th fiction from theperspective of body consciousness, body metaphor and body experience on basis ofwestern body theories. Given all this, it summarizes the constructive meaning about thebody discourse of May Fourth Fiction.The introduction mainly demonstrates researching approaches and methods ofgenealogy, discourse analysis and symptomatic reading. It expounds theoretical significance and realistic meaning of the topic selected. It also defines the relevantconcepts such as Fiction of May4thPeriod and body discourse.Chapter One articulates the theoretical resources and literary representation of bodydiscourse with a logical perspective. We need to articulate basic theory of body discourse,including five typical views about subject, passion, desire, free will and existence. Thesetheories were mostly imported China in May4thPeriod. Therefore the world of bodydiscourse in May4thPeriod was found, which is the logical premise of the study. Literaryrepresentation of body discourse refers to analyzing the literature theoretically, includingthree abstracts as follows: close affinity between body and literature, representation formin literary text and the significance of modern literature, which is the logical startingpoint of the dissertation.Chapter Two expounds the fundamental viewpoint of body consciousness in May4thPeriod from historical point of view. It states the efforts to construct body discourse forthe thinkers of May4thPeriod. Firstly, it proposes the emancipate of body, i.e. removingthe ethical demand of body, criticizing the old and false feudalism ethics, proposing theliberation of individuality and the mass in low social level. The relevant literary conceptis humanity’s rational enlightenment of literature. Secondly, the chapter excavates theessence of human and return to individual and body itself in order to advocate a kind ofbodily subject. The people in May4thPeriod explored the relief that literature is human.Thirdly, It releases the body energy and excavates the inner space of body. The relevantliterary concept is self-consciousness of art for art’s sake proposed by Creation Society.Chapter Three discusses the representation of body discourse in ideological appealof May4thFiction. It includes three aspects: human emancipation and body discourse ofsurvival ethics,"times" disease and body discourse under medical framework, selfexposure and body discourse of individual perception. Chapter Three and Chapter Fourbegin to analyze and criticize the text of May4thfiction.Chapter Four expounds aesthetic patterns of May4thFiction from the perspective ofbody rhetoric. Body has the rhetoric disposition, so it can enter the horizon of literature.This chapter articulates aesthetic forms of May4thFiction from the perspective ofmetaphor, including body consciousness of language, literary style and creativetechniques and body image of diseases, death and libido. Chapter Five articulates the difference and connection between body experience andliterary appeal, including four dimensionalities: physical sense of deficiency brought bythe life of childhood, body sense of belonging nourished by hometown culture, bodysense of drifting caused by the experience of student abroad and body sense of fleeingtriggered by religious care.In conclusion, the dissertation expounds the constructive significance about bodydiscourse of fiction and briefly reviews and summarizes the function of body discourse.Body discourse facilities to rebuild the human science and advocate the bodily subject. Italso promotes fiction revolution and aesthetic salvation. However, when confronting thefracture of fiction text, contradiction of aesthetics and body paradox of human being, Ionly answer in the way of Milan Kundera, fiction is a kind of seeking for thefundamental nature of the human condition, whose conclusion is the ultimate paradox.①Furthermore, we never terminate this kind of seeking. So we are still on the way.