The Charm Of Irony—the Study Of Contemporary Chinese Novels Since 1978

Since 1978,irony has been used frequently in the creation of Chinese contemporary novels.On the basis of abundant reading literature texts,with irony as the view,this article analyzes the new territory and the charm that the western irony presents in contemporary Chinese literature by sorting out the concept of irony and irony theory systematically.Moreover it considers that the essence of the irony in contemporary literature is to transform the literature subject discourse system,and to disassemble the unitary discourse system,which brings about the symbiotic co-existence of multi-discourse like enlightenment discourse of modernity and deconstruction discourse of post-modernism in the literary world since the May 4th Movement.Beginning with the comparison of the western irony and the Chinese satire,the introduction part analyzes the restriction formed by the emergence of irony in China as a result of the weakening of the subject consciousness in Chinese traditional culture,and then elucidates that Chinese social culture in 20~thh century greatly promotes the dissemination and the reception of irony in China.In Chapter One,from the perspective of the evolution of the concept of irony,it discusses the process of the construction of the theory of irony.By systematically combing the western theory’s translation and dissemination in China,it confirms the values of irony as a bridge of communication between Chinese and western literary theories and thoughts.In Chapter Two,by the means of combing the exposition of the western theory since 1978 and summarizing the practice of the contemporary novel irony criticism,it aims to state the uniqueness of the irony appearing in Chinese contemporary novels since the new period.In Chapter Three,from analyzing the aspects of the characters’destiny,the political and cultural context,language iron,etc,it sums up that the irony in Wang Meng’s novels has the dualism--query and guard.In Chapter Four,centered on the studies of the special characters and the splicing language in Wang Shuo’s works,it comes to a conclusion that the irony in his novels has the property of subverting sublimity.In Chapter Five,the works of Wang Xiaobo are discussed as a case study.Through the analysis,it summarizes the characteristics of the banter--deconstruction intermingling with ideal pursue,which reflects from the irony of his works.In Chapter Six,from the perspective of folk narration,it makes a research on the characteristics of the irony in Liu Zhenyun’s novels,which enrich the tension narration between the lofty subjective imagination and the trivial daily affairs,the magnificent historical writing and the humble actual existence,the noisy reality and the public’s lonesome souls.In Chapter Seven,according to the three respective dimensions-fable narration,irony structure and its language,it focus on the analysis of Yan Lianke’s novels,which concludes the dualism of the irony,describing the strength and tenderness of anti-utopian in the revolutionary utopia.In Chapter Eight,focused on Milan Kundera and Márquez,these two western irony novelists,it shows Chinese contemporary novelist’s acceptance and reference to foreign literature when they read foreign literature.Besides it emphasizes the process of how to accept and digest the western ironic novels when Chinese contemporary novelists practice irony in their writing.And the conclusion part summarizes the contribution of Chinese contemporary novels to Chinese literature since1978,especially Chinese novels,and analyzes some of the problems which exist in Chinese ironic novels.