Comprehension And Conversation: On Chinese Fictions Of 1980's Under The Influence Of William Faulkner

In the history of relationship between Chinese literature and Western literature in the 20th century, William Faulkner has made a great influence on Chinese literature, which peaked in 1980's and led to the famous "Heat of William Faulkner". This thesis first traces back to how William Faulkner's fictions have been translated and evaluated ever since 1930's and what accepted opinions about William Faulkner have been formed. Not only do they reflect the changing historical context but also mirror how human nature has been interpreted in different decades. Then the thesis focuses on the influences of Faulkner on Chinese fictions of 1980's after analyzing the "Heat of William Faulkner". Confirming these influences based on the analysis of fictions employing consciousness stream and those about hometown, the thesis makes an comparative study of Faulkner's novels and Chinese ones. It holds that the consciousness stream helps to form secret discourse in Chinese fictions and deconstruct the authoritative one, and that Faulkner's novels about Yoknaptawpha help Chinese writers to reconsider the authoritative history and create their own cosmos. Apart from comparing their fabricating way and narrators, this thesis employs Michel Foucault's power-knowledge theory to discuss many marginal discourse such as sexuality, metamorphosis violence etc. It can be derived that Faulkner and Chinese writers have different ideas on power. Finally the thesis describes Chinese novels by way of dividing them into three kinds and puts forward that the literary influence is a visual and invisible dialogue requiring reconsidering.