Traveling Through The Times--A Study On Chinese Tourist Literature Since The 1980's

With the rapid development of the economy in our country since the 1980's, people's living standard has been raised day by day. The concept of travel gradually enters into the life of the common man; the travel literature goes from recovery to prosperity, from mainstream to mass culture. Under such circumstances, it is possible to conduct a study on Chinese travel literature.This thesis discusses firstly the changing process of the object of the study during the period of "the new stage" in Chinese literary history regarding social backgrounds, choice of topics, way of expressions and aesthetic intensions, etc. The thesis also analyses the multi-forms of the object of the study by making an initial illustration of the purposes of writing traveling essays, the places described in travel literature, the writing styles of the authors of travel literature, etc. Then the paper emphatically discusses the motif images of travel literature by expounding the inner relationship between Nature and human beings from the point of view of imagologie and folklore. Lastly, this thesis narrates concisely the literary significance and cultural significance of travel literature. It can be summarized that the study of Chinese travel literature since the 1980's presents both considerable theoretical and practical values to the historical tradition as well as the contemporary reality. It is also assured that travel literature will become a hot topic discussed within the literary circles. This study is only the beginning for the field of travel literature.