Explanation About The Novel Of Love, A Kind Of The Vernacular Novel Prevalent During The Song And Yuan Dynasties From The Perspective Of Carnivalization

This present paper aims to interpret, from the perspective of carnival culture, the novel of love, a kind of the vernacular novel prevalent during the Song and Yuan dynasties. After profound understanding of the theory of carnivalesque raised by Mikhail Bakhtin, a Russian famous literary critic, the author applies the theory to the analysis of the vernacular novels in Song and Yuan dynasties.First of all, the paper briefly and gradually introduces the theory of"literary carnivalization"in relation to the three main concepts: carnival, carnivalesque and carnivalization, and points out that the source of the theory is the general carnival, the relevant language and genres, and the carnival spirit infiltrated in it. It illustrates that the carnival spirit is a universal world view including the spirit of freedom and equality and the spirit of disruption and renewal, and the carnival spirit represents the Utopian ideal. Besides, the paper interprets the essence of process of the literary carnivalization and explains the concrete mode of expression. Secondly, combined with Chinese traditional culture of folk celebrations, the paper presents a brief but comprehensive analysis of carnival culture in China, carnival culture's influence upon the Chinese literature, the source of the carnival culture in the history of Chinese literature. Finally, in light of the theory and Chinese traditional culture of folk celebrations, the paper highlights the"carnivalesque"in the vernacular novels of Song and Yuan dynasties in terms of the content, artistic forms, such as the spirit of freedom and equality and the spirit of disruption and renewal in the novels, the social philosophy, the special functions and significance of the novels combined with the folk traditional celebrations of Chinese festivals, the unique language, genres, time and space, the description of the characters as well as the teasing language style. The main purpose is to explore the carnival spirit kept in the vernacular novels.