Literary Representation Of Life Politics On Novels In The New Century

Both contents and styles of literature changed apparently with the transformation on society and values at the turn of the century. " Life Politics " has become an important theme of literature while daily life narration a hot topic in literature world. Therefore, it should be a new and effective way to acquire the overall characteristics of novels in the new century through the research on life politics.The introduction of this dissertation aims to introduce the theoretical framework, the object of study, the research status, as well as the research strategy and approaches. The novels in the new century, as the object of study, has close relation with Life Politics of Giddens et al. The recent exploration on novels in the new century, such as the swerve to daily life, has achieved a lot. However, the connotation of Life Politics implied are seldom thrown light on. This dissertation intends to analyze various art representations of the novels in the new century and discover the new nature of them.The first chapter discusses the transform from collectivism to individualism. With the overflowing of the notion of individualism, the process, in which the discourse of individualism is released gradually from the state of being shaded in the perspective of collective/individual, is reflected. This process should be reflected especially before the discussion on Life Politics which features self-realization in the novels in the new century. The transforming track of individualism discourse can be detected from Family Life by Hu Wanchun and Northern Lights by Zhang Kangkang, to You Cannot Change Me by Liu Xihong. Such transforming track embodies more apparently in "The Letters From HuDongyuan" in 1960s, "Discussion on Pan Xiao's Letter" and "Shekou Disturbance" in 1980s.The second chapter deals with the dual character of the impression and liberation of daily life. Daily life discourse has become the usual writing way of the new century literature and aesthetic strategy to keep away from the great narration of Emancipatory Politics. This change throws light on the individual values which have been impressed and neglected for a long time on one hand, and on the other hand, it shows value crisis which emerges from the expanding of individualism discourse. The stimulated individual desire which is extremely powerful can be not only the important impulse of our country's economic development, but also the obstacle to the realization of individual "dignity, independence, primacy and self-development".The third chapter discusses the dilemma of self-identification of modern human beings. While individuals applaud liberation or freedom, they suddenly realize that they lose their social base and cultural support which they live by. The disembedding individuals, just like runaway wild horses, can find nowhere to realize their ideals. The crisis on self-identification seems particularly serious in Risk Society now.Chapter Four, which focuses on the two aspects of gender relationship and intergenerational relationship, is about the transform on private life. With the establishment of intimate relations, the association between male and female has never emphasized on the external conditions such as economy and status, but frank communication and trust between each other. Meanwhile, the relationship between parents and children has no longer been subject to traditional patriarchy or hierarchy, but equality of mutual trust. This strategy aims to cope with the identification crisis and living dilemma for modern human beings, the ideal of which is to be capable of establishing democratic atmosphere throughout society from the bottom up. But the confine set by intimate relation on "Pure Relationship" is obviously ideal, as a result, "eroticism" is faced with the dilemma of being reachable but cannot be reached, and the democracy of intergenerational relationship falls into difficulty.The fifth chapter probes into the approaches to reflection and reestablishment. To cope with the issues arising with individual liberation, an effective way is to re-moralization. Re-moralization means to reintegrate the moral order in post traditional society. The moral transformation cannot be launched actually until the premise of envisaging individualism is emphasized on. The construction of a new moral world depends on efforts and long-time communication and negotiation between individuals and tradition and nature which have been regarded as the others. The return to tradition, the practices on re-historicization, the rising of ecological novels, and bottom narration which facing the reality, are the responses to those issues of Life Politics in the new century novels.