The Historical Continuum Of Narrative Desire In Chinese Literature: From Late Qing Dynasty To May Fourth Period

Combining thematology study of comparative literature with psychoanalytic narratology,with the narrative desire as the key clue for investigation,the dissertation attempts to make a complete and comprehensive exploration of the narrative modes transformation in Chinese literature from Late Qing Dynasty to the May Fourth Movement Period,in the context of assimilating external culture.The study takes desire as the narrative drive and explores how desire is presented with a whole set of narrative strategies,so as to build historically a panorama of the fiction in the period in discussion.From the point view of the varying relationship between the narrative desire and the narrative ethics,the analysis expounds the way the mechanism of narrative desire adapts to or averts the ethical restrictions to avoid censorship and gain legitimacy,eventually offering readers the aesthetic jourissance(pleasure).The study focuses on the way desire proves to be the driving force and the core transforming power of the fiction,also on the textual strategies concerning the shift of narrative space,narrative structure and the changing subject-object relationship of desire.The first part is an introduction about research origins,the object of study and literature review as well.The concept of desire and the related psychoanalytic theory are explicated,followed by the research method and research thinking.In Chapter 1,the narrative desire prior to the Late Qing Dynasty is first briefly reviewed,with an emphasis on the correlation between the narrative desire and the rise of the vernacular novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties.It then analyses the narrative desire of the courtesan fiction in the Late Qing Dynasty,which is on the turning point from classic fiction to modern fiction.It embodies the secular modernity in narrating everyday desires.Chapter 2 makes an analysis of the narrative desire extended by the translated literature in the Late Qing Dynasty.It is pointed out that a breakthrough in the narrative ethics is gained via the translated fiction,since the translators mediated constantly between foreign aesthetic resources and traditional value system.Chapter 3 discusses the changes of narrative desire in the love fiction from the Late Qing Dynasty to the beginning of Republic of China,suggesting that narrative desire had been adapting to different formats among the diversified categories and styles of love fiction.This part focuses on the development of the narrative structure and narrative space with regard to the vernacular love fiction,and the stylistic function of the classical style of writing which falls into the category of the Mandarin-butterfly literature.The modern consciousness and the limits of the narrative desire in urban romance fiction are also emphasized.Chapter 4 explores the way desire,with the borrowed notions from the West,despite the fact that the Enlightenment Narrative was the keynote in the May Fourth new literature,entered into the narrative with the isomorphism of the Enlightenment Discourse,so that a new narrative pattern of marriage freedom was created.This chapter interprets the multiple connotations of the fiction written by Lu Xun from the perspective of desire.The significance that the autobiographical fiction and the erotic fiction by writers like Yu Dafu exerts on the Enlightenment Narrative is also analyzed.In this part,the rise of the female writers,together with the narrative desire in their representative works is also explored.In the conclusion part,it is pointed out that desire as a narrative drive is a potential and core force in the development of narrative art from Late Qing Dynasty to May Fourth Period,and also in the turning point from the classic narrative to the modern fiction.Desire can be satisfied in the process of narrative,which is related to the realization of aesthetic effects.However,narrative desire has to be restricted by the narrative ethics.Both are in the fluctuating relationship of constant restraint and breakthrough,resulting in the correspondent transformation of the narrative patterns.The narrative desire as the clue for investigation is of continuity,indicating that the narrative desire changes constantly in the different cultural context of the 1930 s,1940s,1980 s and the beginning of the 21 st century.The narrative desire can be further studied in the future based on this research.Based on the desire theory in psychoanalysis,this dissertation explores the rise and development of modern Chinese fiction by analyzing the changing narrative desire and attempts to interpret the noteworthy phenomenon in the literature history from a new perspective.The study attempts to bulid a research approach from narrative drive to formal aesthetics of fiction,and to foreground the correlation between aesthetic jourissance and human nature.The research approach can contribute to building a new paradigm for literature study and literature criticism,can offer a new horizon for comparative literature study,especially in the field of Sino-foreign literary relations,and can provide thoughts of resolution to bridge the gap between the classical novels and modern fiction,between the popular literature and the elite literature in the course of “rewriting the history literature.”...