Archetypal Reading On Xiao Hong's Novels

Xiao Hong is a special woman writer of modern Chinese literature history, herwriting life is only 10 years old. The total words of her works are less than a millionwords, however, Xiao Hong's novels appeal to researchers for a long time. XiaoHong's researching works includes two periods, the first of which is about Xiao Hongherself and her works mainly writen by her friends during 1930s-1940s. The secondperiod is from 1980s on. With new researching methods and from different angles,researchers study her fictions in many fields, such as the writer's biography, literaturehistory, feminism, comparative literature, artistic distinguishing feature etc. Among somany researching fields, there is no archetypal criticism. That's why the author wantto read Xiao Hong's novels with the method of archetypal criticism. Therefore, on thebasis of the formers' researching, this paper firstly connects Xiao Hong's novels witharchetypal criticism. The author trys to decipher the meaning of Xiao Hong's novelswith system archetypal criticism method. The author finds two kinds of archetypes inher works. They are the mythical woman archetype and the colletive unconscious.The people's life, spirit and fate in her fictions are identical with the two kinds ofarchetypes. The images and narrative models which are expressed in Xiao Hong'snovels also coincide with the two kinds of archetypes. We can account for the reasonwhy Xiao Hong's writing angle always aims at common people especially women'scommon life through archetypal criticism. She described their hard life and benightedand benumbed spirit. She also revealed women's miserable fate and its causes. Shehoped that people of the whole society should attach great importance to thisphenomenon and try to cure 'the illness'. In the novels' writing which is coincidedwith the two kinds of archetypes, Xiao Hong herself took the responsibility of'transforming national spirit'. She carried on 'the May 4th movement' intellectualenlightenment spirit. She grew up a thorough enlightenment person .The author discusses Xiao Hong's novels from the following respects in thepaper:The first part is the introduction which talks about three topics: the summary ofthe researching themes on Xiao Hong's novels;the relative archetypal criticism theoryand the outline of the paper writing;the researching method and meaning of the paperwriting. In this part, the author mainly analyses the necessary and theoretical basis ofthe paper writing.Chapter one is about the two kinds of archetypes in Xiao Hong's novels. Theauthor finds the two kinds of archetypes in Xiao Hong's novels through readingcarefully.One is mythical woman archetype which is mixed by two kinds of mythicalstories of 'Chang E Ben Yue'and 'Wu Shan Shen Nv' through "archetypaldisplacement". It shows women's miserable life in the man-dominated society.Another is colletive unconscious, which acturally means the traditional habit ofthousands of years which is reflected in people's psychology and action. It can befurther divided into three parts: woman collective unconscious, man collectiveunconscious and social collective unconscious.This archetype portrays the people'sbenighted and benumbed spirit and the reason for their miserable fate.Chapter two is about image structure and archetype subject.In this part, theauthor discusses an expression about the two kinds of archetypes in Xiao Hong'snovels—images. The sun image which is made up of a series of sun images exposesthe commen people who are oppressed and destroyed in the man-dominated society;the life image which is made up of a series of living and dead scenes exposes people'sbenighted and benumbed tragedy life;the widow image which is made up of a seriesof widow events exposes the women's tragic fate.Chapter three is about narrative model and archetype subject. About narrativestructure, Xiao Hong took a writing way of dimming time, protruding space andweakening plot. She tried to concentrate on the two kinds of archetypes in differentscenes. About narrative angle, Xiao Hong employed a pure objective angle and achildren angle , and so Xiao Hong could vividly display the two kinds of archetypesin different angles.The final part is the conclusion of the paper, the author finds Xiao Hong stood onthe enlightenment person from beginning to end through the archetypal criticismreading. She portrayed the lower layer working peoper's life especially the women'stragic life from the enlightenment angle. This novel's writing which is coincided withthe two kinds of archetypes made her become a thorough enlightenment personfinally.