A Study Of Modern Sichuan Novels In The Perspective Of Sichuan Dialect

Dialect,tone language of the region,is a kind of active folk discourse formed due to regional differences.Dialects have both linguistic and literary value.Literature is the art of language.Dialects have special literary aesthetic qualities because of their unique intonation,word formation and ideographic methods.The writer’s selective use of dialects of regional life language in literary creation can better highlight the local flavor and create typical characters with regional character,so as to achieve the effect of increasing the artistic expression of novels.Sichuan dialect belongs to the northern dialect system,the internal language elements and Mandarin have a relatively neat corresponding relationship,similar pronunciation,grammatical structure,most of the vocabulary is interlinked.At the same time,Sichuan dialect also retains its inherent local characteristics.Its vivid image,concise and implicit,humorous,rough and plain,vulgar and elegant taste,as well as its commonly used expressions such as "Lone Men Zhen(chatting)","teasing" and "quarrel",contain the new and interesting beauty that readers can perceive.This unique sound and charm of Sichuan dialect have become an important language tool and expression of Sichuan modern novel writers.Sichuan dialect has long been incorporated into the tradition of literary creation;it has made vital contributions to the development of Bashu(two ancient cities in Sichuan,referring to Sichuan)culture.After the May 4th Movement in 1919,Li Jieren(1891-1962),Ba Jin(1904-2005),Sha Ting(1904-1992),Ai Wu(1904-1992)and other important writers remained unchanged from their local accent and “spoke Sichuan dialect” in their works,which played a vital role in enhancing the artistic appeal of their works.Their unique and charming use of the Sichuan dialect has been widely praised.Sichuan modern novels started with the “May 4th” new literature,developed in the 1920s,and rose as a new force in the 1930s and 1940s.With a conscious use and concoction of common sayings in their dialect,although sometimes hidden and obvious,the Sichuan dialect,together with Beijing dialect,is listed as the two most influential dialects in modern Chinese literature.The distinctive “Sichuan flavor” style is unique in the modern Chinese literary circles.Sichuan modern novel writers have emerged in the modern literary circles with the trend of a charging group.They have gathered the mother tongue dialect resources growing in the folk land and flexibly utilized various language strategies to create a rich local flavor of novels and form a rich Sichuan dialect writing style.When studying representative writers including Li Jieren,Sha Ting,Ai Wu,Ba Jin,Zhou Wen(1907-1952),Luo Shu(1903-1938),Wang Yuqi(1905-1989),Chen Quan(1903-1969)and so on,and representative texts such as Sishui Weilan(Rippling Dead Water),Taojin Ji(Records of the Gold Rush),Fengrao De Yuanye(An Abundant Wilderness),Jia(Home),Yaomiao Ji(Tobacco Seedling Season),Shengren Qi(A Stranger’s Wife),Ziliu Jing(Artesian Wells)and others,we can clearly see the rich and varied discourse expression forms created in Sichuan dialect writing.They also reveal the close connection among the Sichuan dialect,the regional literature,and the local culture,in which they are entangled in the source,mutual generation and mutual existence.A retrospect of the academic history reveals that the former scholars in the academic circle have mainly researched Sichuan modern novels from the aspects of the literary history,the local culture and the narratology,with rare research on Sichuan modern novels from the perspective of dialects.Only in the individual research of some writers and works(such as Li Jieren,Sha Ting,and others.)are such issues involved.A holistic study of Sichuan dialect writing is still blank for the time being.How was the Sichuan dialect absorbed and integrated into the language system of modern vernacular novels? What role does Sichuan dialect play in the generation,development and evolution of Sichuan modern novels and what historical role does it play? What kind of artistic aesthetic form does Sichuan dialect writing create and what kind of cultural value does it have? These and other questions are in urgent needs of a systematic and in-depth study of the complex relationship between Sichuan dialect and Sichuan modern novels.Therefore,this paper attempts to conduct a comprehensive and systematic study on the dialect phenomenon in Sichuan modern novels,and further excavate the regional charm and artistic value of Sichuan modern novels from the perspective of dialectology.It aims to fill in the deficiency of the research on Sichuan modern novels and Sichuan literature to some extent.It can provide new enlightenment on innovating the language of contemporary regional literature and even modern Chinese literature.This paper is divided into three parts,including the introduction,main body and conclusion.The introduction is a statement of the research background and origin and a summary of the relevant present research.It mainly expounds on the history and significance of dialect writing,as well as the tradition and status quote of Sichuan dialect writing.It examines the relevant research results of Sichuan dialect and Sichuan modern novels in the academic circle,analyzes their shortcomings,and then establishes the research perspective,methods and theoretical system of this paper.The main body consists of four chapters,which is a step-by-step exploration process of Sichuan dialect writing from macro to micro,from form to content.Chapter I comprehensively examines the evolution course of Sichuan dialect writing,with exposition focusing on the connection between Sichuan dialect and Sichuan modern novels in different contexts in terms of mutual generation,support,and other aspects.It makes a diachronic perspective on the changes in the contents,themes and artistic features of Sichuan dialect writing.Influenced by the vernacular literature movement in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China,the Sichuan dialect was used in the creation of “new novels” with modern newspapers such as “Yu Xian Lu” and others which served as the communication carriers.It was a useful attempt to promote consistency between spoken and written languages.Especially,Li Jieren’s Sichuan dialect writing has initiated modern vernacular novels.In the context of commonly seen local literature and dialect advocacy which became popular in the 1920s,the adoption of the Sichuan dialect in Sichuan modern novels is in a spontaneous state.Sichuan dialect is mixed with a number of Europeanized expressions.It mainly exerts the realistic rhetoric function of the dialect to objectively present the real style and features of Sichuan’s local areas.In the 1930s and 1940s,Sichuan modern novels catered to the trend of the times of popularization and nationalization.The favor and conscious use of the spoken Sichuan dialect is a vital way for Sichuan modern novel writers to popularize literature.A conscious and creative use of the Sichuan dialect not only increases the number and forms of dialect colloquial expressions in the novel texts but also deeply explores the profound cultural connotation behind the dialect,showing consciousness of loading regional culture in Sichuan dialect writing.Chapter II investigates the text paradigm on the Sichuan dialect writing according to language skills and analyzes the writing forms and expression effects of the three elements of a dialect entering novels,and the expression modes of Sichuan dialect entering the common language writing to break through the regional limitations.On the difficult issue of writing with a dialect,Sichuan modern writers have carried out a bold language experiment.By borrowing Chinese characters,they have recorded the original sounds of Sichuan dialect pronunciations,with the Sichuan accent and rhyme aesthetically reproduced.Sichuan dialect vocabulary and idioms are directly quoted into the text,giving the novels a strong colloquial color and vivid expression.In choosing words and making sentences,they do not avoid various sentence patterns and rhetorical methods used by the Sichuan dialect,which reflects a deep-seated regional consciousness of language thinking.Sichuan modern novel writers have also refined,processed and reformed the dialect elements used in the texts.Sichuan dialect common sayings are interspersed into the main body of the common language.Sichuan dialect and the common language are gathered and coordinated to be used.Meanwhile,the Sichuan dialect is explained and annotated by using the easy-to-understand common language to resolve the difficulties of cross-regional communication in dialect writing.Chapter III expounds,in the literature aesthetic level,the artistic construction features of novels under the influence of Sichuan dialect thinking from three aspects,including novel characterization,narrative skills and the writer’s personality style.They use original Sichuan Dialect to form an all-round imitation and description of characters’ appearances,behaviors,psychology,and languages.The dialect nicknames and characters’ words form a complete aura in terms of words,intonation and spiritual disposition,so as to jointly set off Sichuan characters in a unity of form and spirit.The language expression forms of “Long Men Zhen(chatting)”,“teasing”and “quarreling” with special local features in Sichuan dialect,as the concentrated embodiment of Sichuan dialect’s essential flavor and artistic thinking,are used in the narration of the dialogue organization and quasi-dialogue form of the characters in the novels,reflecting the secular,allegorical and vulgar features of “narration with Sichuan flavor.” Writers’ different language concepts and literary pursuits give rise to writers’ different dialect writing thinking modes and personality styles.Sha Ting’s dialect writing presents a concise and implicit style.Ba Jin’s dialect writing shows the features of “zero skills”,and Li Jieren’s dialect writing manifests the great tension of dialect discourse and the features of common sayings expressed in elegance.Chapter IV investigates and traces the cultural implication of Sichuan dialect writing from the perspective of literary and cultural value,this chapter.The cultural implication of Sichuan modern novels originates from the psychological cluster of writers as a group,that is,the regional cultural consciousness and mother tongue dialect emotion.Showing self-identity,adherence and using Sichuan dialect are important ways for Sichuan modern novel writers to express their homesickness,show Bashu culture and realize realism in writing about their local areas.The cultural connotation of Sichuan modern novels is mainly reflected in the description of Bashu folkways and local cultural symbols such as Paoge(with a literal meaning of Robe Brothers,referring to a reactionary gang in southwest China before liberation in1949),teahouses,opium and so on.On the basis of ensuring the reality of history,Sichuan dialect writing not only unfolds a series of local knowledge with literary value,but also artistically reappears Sichuan’s natural geography,historical tradition,customs,living style and other folk life prospects;The folk characters’ own language reveals the cultural psychology and character of the folk world;In the conflict and harmony between the mainstream culture and regional culture and between the common language writing and Sichuan dialect writing,the folk standpoint of the writer’s personal vision is highlighted.The conclusion focuses on the significance and value of dialect writing in Sichuan modern novels in the literature,Chinese and cultural histories.The creative use of Sichuan dialect has realized the literary aesthetic reproduction of spoken dialect and enriched the expression system of modern Chinese literary language.It provides an important platform and space for protecting the development of dialects and maintaining the balance of Chinese ecology.At the same time,it also has important value for the study of local culture,folk culture and social history.On this basis,it points out the limitations and immaturity in the writing of Sichuan Dialect:the writing form of spoken Sichuan dialect,the dissemination and acceptance difficulties due to a lack of selection and refinement.In a word,the research of this paper hopes to re-examine the aesthetic value and cultural significance of dialect writing through a comprehensive and systematic investigation of dialect phenomena in Sichuan modern novels,and try to explore how to promote the literary dialect experiment in the context of globalization to a new aesthetic and historical height,so as to create the regional characteristics and national style of Chinese literature.