Research On Nostalgic Writing In Native Soil Novels In The 1920-30s

The modem native soil novel of China has undertaken great changes within the process towards modernity,therefore,in the context of Chinese literature,the writings concerning native soil always fit the two dimensions,namely,"to return to the reality in China" and "the life experience of writers".That is to say,with the reality problems in China being paid special attention to,the attributes in the agrestic China has been captured in the native soil novels,which have reflected the complexity of various affairs in the time-space transformation process,and provided the most proper clips of the life experience of Modem Chinese in the whole modernization process in China.Therefore,the "re-writing" of agrestic experience,which finally points towards the native earth which ordinary Chinese people live upon and represents the unique nostalgic attitude,naturally existing in the native soil novels.As a tactic psychological mechanism in human beings,nostalgia that not only shows the emotional state of the individual beings and has been internalized to be an archetypal consciousness,could always be found everywhere.What has to be pointed out is that,against the background of modem society,various dimensions have been developed from the traditional homesickness(nostalgia),which means "drifting" in multi-dimensions has been interpreted rather than being confined to the appearance of leaving the hometown,or to put it another way,as a result of which,re-interpretation on the new changes as such are demanded.The nostalgia theory in modern context which has been focusing on examining the existential status quo of the modern people with the modern vision,has expressed the nostalgia of the lost time with the reflexive attitude,therefore,the nostalgia theory turns out to be more profound and general rather than the conventional explanation of the emotion of homesickness.With this concerned,the modern theory of nostalgia is called for in order to interpret the native soil novels in the 20s-30s in China,with the expectation to take this as a starting point and provide a new research vision for the changes in the native soil literature in the past centuryThis paper falls into four chapters.The first two chapters expand on "native soil" and"nostalgia" for the purpose of clarifying the relationship between them.Chapter three examines different identities in native soil nostalgic writing with its focus on "identification",a key dimension as well as an important foundation of "nostalgic writing".On the basis of close reading of literary texts,chapter four elucidates aesthetic narrative of "nostalgic writing" and makes a comprehensive survey of varying aesthetics of nostalgic writing by native soil writers whose similarities and dissimilarities are addressed with the same attention.In the introduction,the reason and aim of this research project and the situations of the current correlational researches of the native soil novels is clarified,meanwhile,the important theoretical reference,namely the poetics of "nostalgia" is under discussion,so as to "shi ming"(to interpret the name).The first chapter has analyzed the specialty of "native soil" in modem China by means of taking the context of modernity as the starting point.In the spiritual world of Chinese,"native soil" is regarded as mother or the origin of life,therefore,every individual could be taken as "the son of earth",that is to say,the intimacy covered the existence of the locality.In the modern vision,the "native soil" would be re-found,only on the condition that modernity has brought the rupture.On the one hand,the "native soil" has been detached from the classical context,and reappeared as the modern aesthetic objects.On the other hand,the "native soil" is rendered as a modern cultural concept.In the dissertation,findings as such are also taken as the starting point for discussion.The second chapter has made clear the pedigree of modern "nostalgia" poetics theoretically,and attempted to construct my theoretical model.Nostalgia in modern sense is not only a kind of psychological experience,but also the cultural experience caused by the "duan ling"(separated)status of individuals in the modern field of culture.No matter the original background of the concept is from psychology in the western context,or the developed modern sense is regarded as one notion of the cultural studies,both of them have referred to the uncomfortable individual feelings towards the surrounding world as a result of the break of the continuity between men and his life-world."Nostalgia",which is just the deepest desire for the secured order of the people immersed in disorder,is based on the three dimensions:time,space and identification,as a result of which the appeal of past has been kept.In order to interpret "nostalgia" in my unique approach,more specific details of the context have been considered carefully,such as,in my perspective,two correlated but different gestures of nostalgia,namely "the restore-return model" as well as the"reflex-identification model",are divided according to "how the subject of nostalgia treats the relationship between the past and reality"that is a basic question in the whole research.The third chapter has concentrated in the important dimension of "nostalgia" poetics,which means the research into the appeals to the identification of nostalgia in the native soil novels from 1920s to 1930s.In the complicated context of modern China,not only the destiny of the nation had caused much worries,but also the experience of individual life is occupied by worries,so the concerns for "continuity" should not be confined as an individual problem,but also be involved in the formation of modern nation,according to which,surrounding the questions of "who we are"and "who we will become",the discourses of the dimension of identification have been constructed in the nostalgic writing in native soil novels,which consists of the collective discourse for dealing with the national crisis and the securing of national identification and the individual discourse for keeping the continuity of life in the modern liquid world as well.In the forth chapter,the above mentioned two different models of the gesture of "nostalgia"are taken as the perspective of researching,so as to point out that there have been two different dispositions of aesthetic construction of narrations in the native soil novels,one is "the nostalgia in native soil",the other one is "the native soil in nostalgia",the aesthetic appeals of which are of difference.The former has concentrated in the reexamining the native soil in the perspective of"disenchantment",and the latter puts emphasis on the "re-enchantment" of the fairy-land of native soil.Finally,in the conclusion of the dissertation,a general judgment has been made,the merits and defects are pointed out,and the huge space for developing in the vision of researching has been underlined.