A Hundred Years Of "countryman Into The City" Novel Narrative Research

Through close reading of the core texts,this dissertation,taking the novels of the"country people entering city" in more than one hundred years(1894—present)as the research object,tries to explore the complicated relationship between these novels and the social and historical background from the historical perspective of Chinese modern transformation since 1894.Taking modernity as the starting point,this dissertation extends the research under the logical framework of bi-directional interaction between novels and the historical background,focusing on how Chinese later-emerged modernity reflects in the novels and what its unique characteristics are,so as to find a new interpretation path for this Chinese later-emerged modernity.The dissertation adopts some interdisciplinary research methods and tries to make a breakthrough and innovation not only in perspective of the internal research of the limited texts,but also other factors such as the external historical context and the producing mechanism,etc.so as to explore the urban and rural problems and the complex modernity embodied in through a more open context and vision.Trying to seize the general characteristics of such novels at every stage and emphasizing on the problems arising from the historical crossing and the space transferring of the rural people into the city,the dissertation focuses on several core texts,so as to study the "modernity" of these novels.According to the changes of social field and the development characteristics of literature due to the changes of social structure elements and different conditions of novel-writings,the dissertation is divided into five parts:modern literature,"the twenty-seven years" after the founding of the People's Republic of China,the 1980s,after 1990s and "the present":The first chapter is the study of the novels on "country people entering city" during the modern literary stage(1894—1949).During this period of time,it is a free "capital"society--the natural economy of native China is gradually disintegrated under the invasion of foreign capital of the west.The creation of this kind of novels is in the state of spontaneous writing,mostly as a by-product of "rural bankruptcy",and the trend has not yet formed.Due to the social and historical reasons,the emergence of these novels in 1930s is comparatively concentrated,which is mainly composed of two categories.One is the novels wrote under the political and economic perspective,being influenced by the left wing literary trend of thought in 1930s.Mao Dun's "Midnight" and "Micro Wave",Wang Tongzhao's "ShanYu",Ding Ling's "Ben",and Ye Zi's "Yang Qi Gonggong Guo Nian" all belong to this category.These novels try to reveal the invasion evil of foreign capital by means of the political and economic bankruptcy in urban and rural areas,which is a "semi-colony" national imagination.In addition to the "left wings" inclination during this period of time,other writers of this kind,such as Lao She,Shen Congwen,Wang Luyan and other writers,hold the position of cultural criticism,aiming to reveal the erosion of capital towards humanity--urban is portrayed as a hell of humanity.These two categories of texts show the critical aesthetic of modernity characteristics.The second chapter is the study of the novels on the "country people entering city"during the "twenty-seven years" literature(1949—1976).This stage is the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China,and the new regime is facing "the whole country entering city" problem.This kind of novels is under the national discourse,which is composed of the two patterns of "cadres-into-city" and "recruitment-into-city",in which the"city" changes from "consuming city" to "productive city".The "cadres-into-city" novels focus on the criticism of "consumption" of the city in which the "rural cadres" are corrupted by "sugar-coated-bullets".The complex interpretation and criticism mechanism of the novel"Between the Couple" exactly presents the social anxiety of the "cadres into city".The novels about "recruitment into the city" are trying to use "Spartan" type of "production city" to eliminate the anxiety for "the consumption of the city".In Liu Qing's The History of Entrepreneurial,Xu Gaixia's entering city is tangled with anxiety for the consumption of the city.But this anxiety is soon eliminated by "production city" in some industry novels,such as Ai Wu's "Toughtened and Hardened into Steel",Cao Ming's "Ride the Wind and Waves",to achieve the purpose of "industrial rescue".During this period,these novels contain a set of complete narrative logic in accordance with the national social transformation:"personal desires" are subjected to the "national will",which witnesses the purpose of the country people who enter city change from "individual purpose" to "national need".This kind of novels is involved in the imagination of industrial China of "encircling the cities from the countryside","taking over the city" and "building the city" during the early founding days of the people's Republic of China.The aesthetic modernity anxiety of city capital consumption is quickly replaced by social modernity,showing the pursuit of social modernity which fits in with the social development logic.The third chapter is the novels on the "country people laboring in city" in 1980s(1977—1991).This period is the beginning of Chinese reforming and opening up,when rural people into city is in a semi-free state,the system has not yet been completely eliminated,and the"urban-rural dualism" restricts the rural people into the city.There are two modes:Chen Huansheng's up to Town and Gao Jialin Entering City.Chen Huansheng's "up-to-town" is most likely a temporary action,the reason for which is to buy daily necessities or sell agricultural by-products.This temporary migration in urban and rural areas also makes rural people experience city modernity,and be confronted with the conflicts of huge material differences,the ideology,and the cultural shock between urban and rural areas,which undoubtedly has the critical meaning of aesthetic modernity.In the mode of "intellectual youth Gao Jialin into City ",compared with Xiangxue's longing for the city in the countryside of Tie Ning's novel Oh XiangXue,and the dilemma,being caught in between urban and rural areas,of Gao Jialin from Luyao's novel Life and Jin Gou from Jia Pingwa's Impetuous,Sun Shaoping's entering city in Luyao's novel Ordinary World has more taste of individualism,the taste which is arisen by the awakening of individual modernity.This individual entering city accords with the characteristics of 1980s in the interpretation of "reform and opening" "city"and "new enlightenment",which also accords with the development logic of social modernity.The fourth chapter is on the novels of the "country people laboring in city" since 1990s(1992—2007).The boom of country people entering city caused by the market economy tide also inspires such creation.During this period of time,this kind of novels can be described as"heteroglossia",the number of writers and novels are hitherto unknown,which has become the mainstream on the surface of writing."Suffering narration","gender narration" and "rural barrenization" are the sustained emphasis of these novels,which show different degrees of"problem novels" features,aiming to expose and criticize.“Suffering narrative" pays attention to not only the material difficulties of rural people in the city,but also the mental anxiety caused by the identity of "otherness"."Gender narrative" of these novels of this period is mainly for the rural women who engage in "sex business" in the city and the urban-rural marriage,the most common stories are about rural women'“body”.In the“misery narrative”and“gender narrative",the writers see the city as an "evil",essentially a city of anxiety,so as to reflect and criticize the negative factors in the process of modernization.The "rural barrenization" is a kind of country anxiety writing.City modernization not only takes the rural labor force which causes the countr'ys "three left-behinds" problem,but also causes the "barrenization" of rural traditional culture."Vanishing village" has become a common concern of the writers.These three kinds of narratives reveal many negative problems in the process of modernization,showing the ferocious face of modernity to readers with a strong and practical sense of participation,revealing the living dilemma of the country people--neither being able to enter city,nor being able to go back to village".Therefore a kind of aesthetic modernity criticism is revealed.The fifth chapter discusses the new change of such novels since 2008.The construction of the building of a harmonious society at the national level and the promotion of new urbanization substantially influence the novels of "country people laboring in city".During this stage,this kind of novels has not only a poetic construction of urban and rural integration,but also the curing worries of social stratum.The integration efforts between the urban and the rural is carried out mainly from two aspects.One is the construction of city villages.Through the narrative mode of the "crop entering town",country people's city-entering dream and city people's rural dreams are achieved,and the poetic construction of the integration between the rural and the urban is finally achieved through the allegorical writing.The other is blend-in of country people into the city.The small cobbler in Wang Anyi's Proud Cobber obtains city people's respect with pride and self-esteem,achieving a real city-entering.The poetic construction of the integration between the urban and the rural lies only in paper,as is virtual,it is in line with the logic of social modernity,and is a "well-intended vision" of the integration between the urban and the rural.Fangfang's "Tu ZiQiang's Personal Grief,Dongxi's "Altered Destiny" and Fan Xiaoqing's "Fragment" deal with the hardened reality in the process of "country people entering city",which interpret the social topic of the stratum solidification.The three novels and Hao Jingfang's "Folding BeJling,respectively sketch out the present and the future of "the new poor in city".The narration in this level continues to carry the aesthetic criticism of the modernity in the previous stages.In the vision of modern transformation of the rural China in one hundred years and the logical framework of the mutual construction between the novel and the social cultural context,taking the novels of "country people laboring in city" as a whole and combining literature and cultural studies,this dissertation emphasizes on the multiple historical and cultural context on the basis of text close-reading.This dissertation pays attention to not only the whole and diachronic investigation of the "country people entering city" novels,but also the synchronic study and the interpretation of specific text,focusing on not only the linear evolution of the novels in the view of "history" but also the theory promotion and reflection in the field of "discussion".The purpose of this dissertation is to explain the complex relationship between the modern transformation of country people and the transformation of modern society,trying to find the interaction between the modern transformation of narrative of different periods and the modern transformation of Chinese urban and rural,so as to interpret the theological post modernity of China and explore the spiritual track of the country people from tradition to modernization and the reasons why difficulties emerge in more than 100 years.This dissertation shows a new interpretation path for the Chinese later-emerged modernity,which is also a new attempt in literature sociology research paradigm to solve problems.It is of great value and significance to deeply understand the contemporary social and cultural symptoms and to meditate on the social,historical and cultural problems in the process of urbanization of China.