Tempering Revitalization

Set in the historic background of war time period in the forties of the twentieth century, Chinese literature of this period lies in the historic crossroads of modern literature development. The present paper takes one type of fictions in this period as its object of study, adopts a deconstructionist approach to the narration style and thus shed light on the position, way and effect of the wartime intellectuals' self-enquiry. The narration by this type of intellectuals, as set in the first person narrative fictions, has led to a state of intricacy and complication due to the uniqueness of the fiction type and their narrators. Therefore, it is hardly a piece of cake to conform to the literary trend of the times and convey at the same time those intellectuals' self-enquiry because the two aspects are not in total unison. As a result, the narration of the fictions undergoes turbulent changes. The array of multi-level narrative style, contradictory narrative subjects and ironic narrative construction contributes to the possibility of the existence of the first person narrative in the forties. Adopting the post-constructionist narrative theory, the present paper helps to get out the crux of the topic under discussion by way of detailed analysis, and based on this, further examines the narrative mechanism of the first person narrative fictions as well as the discourse style of the intellectuals' self-enquiry amidst the overwhelming trend of the times. Focused on the particular fictions, the present research method may secure advantages in the more extensive cultural and psychological layer through its examination on the literariness.