Hermeneutics and the implied May Fourth reader: A study of Hu Shih, Lu Xun and Mao Dun

This study of May Fourth literature adopts the "hermeneutical" approach to clarify the role of Chinese writers and readers in the unfolding history of modern Chinese literature. By employing "reception theory" as a special example of the hermeneutical approach, I demonstrate how the implied Chinese reader assumes crucial importance in modern Chinese essays, drama and fiction.; Chapter I indicates the basic issues that have complicated May Fourth research during recent years. It emphasizes the importance of Confucian tradition as well as the occurrence of unprecedented social changes in the effort to explain the rise of a vernacular literature. Chapter II introduces the hermeneutical approach in order to demonstrate how the combination of traditional form and modern content led to the development of May Fourth narrative. The concept of an "horizon of expectations" is shown to be a crucial aspect of this development. Chapter III emphasizes the role of the implied reader in determining the meaning of May Fourth literature as a textual experience. Hu Shih's essay "Ibsenism" defines realism as an attitude, as opposed to literary realism. Hence Hu Shih's essay is more important as a progressive appeal to the Chinese reader than as an new interpretation of Ibsen. The fiction of Lu Xun and Mao Dun indicates how the May Fourth writer produces the Chinese reader on a rhetorical basis. Chapter IV traces the development of May Fourth literature in terms of three moments in Chinese cultural history. Hu Shih's work as a critic and playwright typifies optimism and progressivism. Lu Xun's remarkable short stories epitomize pessimism and experimentalism. Mao Dun's novels represent the political concerns and apprehensions. The conclusion takes up the controversy between C. T. Hsia and Jaroslav Prusek, two critics who represent traditional and scientific criticism in terms of their common failure to master the relationship between tradition and change. By stressing the role of the implied May Fourth reader in cultural interpretation, I defend the originality of the new literature on a hermeneutical basis.