| On modern Chinese literary periodical covers, there is a very unique cultural phenomenon , which means that most literary periodicals are well laid out, with some exquisite nonliterary text such as copperplate pictures and drawings. Novel Monthly is no exception.Nowadays, rave Images penetrating into our lives, visual era is around the corner. What is our reconsideration on"primitive ecological database"of pictures and texts in the history of modern Chinese literature and journals? What would the nonlinguistic art treasures imply to make us have a clear image about the history of modern Chinese literature and culture? Meanwhile, is it possible to make a research of modern literary journals and explain some social and cultural phenomenon by interpreting their covers as the first step? How should we perceive the significance and value of them?Intertextuality theory proposed by several important linguists in the 20th century offered us the possibility of exploring the deep cultural meaning hidden in these paratexts and illustrations on the covers. Julia Kristeva was the first to propose the concept Intertextuality, who held that every text consists of quotation and is absorbed and transformed from the others. Roland Barthes further explored the concept of intertextuality with three core concepts "The Death of Author," "writerly text" and "jouissaance". Jacques Derrida, from the deconstructionism perspective, expounded "Intertextuality" theory. He held that when one opened a text,he also opened countless texts of all ages at the same time, and every text was the imitation to the others. Gérard Genette offered, from the transtextuality perspective, a narrow definition of "intertextuality" and "paratext". While Michael Riffaterre , receptor-oriented ,analysed the "hypogram"of intertextuality ."Intertextuality" theory is not only to present us a totally new approach to explanation of relationship between our non-literary texts and literary texts, but also facilitate us to interpret the texts in a new way of thinking. There is a relationship between texts, which coexist with the others in a vast social and cultural context."Novel Monthly"was very typical in modern history of literary periodicals, outstanding for its long span and elegant printing and exuberant content,but perplexing us for its quite different status before and after the Reformation."Novel Monthly"(1910-1920) edited by Yunzhang Wang and Tieqiao Yun was regarded as cold babbittry reading by most scholars. However, in charge by Yanbing Shen and Zhenduo Zheng (Ye Shengtao) the literary journal has always been considered to be the vanguard of literary innovation and the cultural center. Therefore, Editorship is a key factor to the value or the success of a journal published, and functions as a shortcut to the understanding of it.On the basis of the results from previous study, the author will ,from a new perspective ---Intertextuality , under the guidance of the French literary theorist Gérard Genette's transtexutality and paratextality , expound the outgrown tendency and unique style of Novel Monthly published before the Reformation to reflect its true look at that time , therefore ,provide some new methods for modern literature research.With quantitative analysis of statistics and figures of the illustration in Novel Monthly published before the Reformation, the authors found that it was distinguishing from the others at that time for its unique style and the innovative ideology as well as voluminous distribution and good design. All of these characteristics embody on the following five aspects: 1. enlighten the people; 2. advocate more short stories; 3. strive to define "elegance" as the main style of the journal; and define elite intellectuals as its target reader. 4. Integrate traditional culture with modern culture as well as Chinese culture with foreign culture; 5.uphold the concern for women liberation as its theme, take up the responsibility of construction of the modern society and the nation. |
PDF Full Text Request