| This dissertation studies the relationship between private experience and fiction in the stories written by Xu Zhenya and Su Manshu and the influence of this relationship on their themes and writing techniques. It is in the context of the self-awareness of the author and his readiness to dramatize himself in his work that subjectivism is understood.;The poet-monk Su Manshu tends to identify himself directly in his fiction. He names his characters after himself and endows them with his own personality traits. He also idealizes his characters and transforms the narrative structures to portray his personal conflict between the spiritual and the worldly. The cyclical structure in The Lone Swan illustrates his recurring inner struggle; "The Crimson Silk" describes the sublime state of Buddhist renunciation; "The Broken Hairpin" relates the suffering caused by worldly sentiments as viewed through the eyes of a Buddhist monk.;The subjectivism of Xu and Su was derived from a combination of influences from traditional literature and translations of foreign fiction. Compared to the late Qing novels which had already revealed a subjective tendency, Xu and Su's stories evinced a more pronounced and self-conscious subjectivism characterized by candid admissions of the stories as self-portraits and by psychological characterization. Subjectivism was also an important characteristic of the ensuing May Fourth fiction. Its writers, more sophisticated in their handling of material, were able to make better use of the tendency to assimilate life and art.;Xu Zhenya's famous novel, The Soul of the Jade Pear Flowers, is based on the author's tragic love affair. Here, we find a close identification between the author and his narrator and hero. This is evident in the use of a highly personalized and subjective narrative mode. The narration also emphasizes direct and immediate depiction of the consciousness of the characters, revealing their emotions and thoughts through interior monologue, "represented discourse", soliloquy, and the more traditional usage of poems and letters. The same story was later rewritten as the hero's diary (Tearful Memories), stressing even more strongly the author's self-identification. |
