The Vicissitude Of Modern Desire

During 1930s, Shi Zhecun's novel creation opened up a new field for Chinese modern literature, which was also regarded as a rewarding exploration. Undoubtedly, Shi Zhecun himself was a worthy explorer. However, the existential sense of Shi Zhecun was not only limited in revelation of the real desire, which had been suppressed by human civilization and social norms. More importantly, we should concentrate on the integration of his novels between tradition and modernity, and his untiring pursuit of pure art. Cutting from the perspective of narration, this paper attempts to explore the phased transformation during the process of describing desire, and to discuss the social and cultural background behind this phased transformation. Shi's novels experienced a tortuous process, which developed from fission to mature, and finally regression. This paper also discussed the inherent causality between these three different periods and their corresponding social and cultural background.The paper was divided into four chapters:First of all, the introduction pointed out that during 1930s, after obtained affirmation, Shi Zhecun's pursuit of pure art sustained denouncement, which was impressed with the time brand. Then the introduction summarized the typical literary critics after the emergence of the 1980's "The Fever of Shi Zhecun". Afterward, the introduction classified the study of Shi Zhecun during 1990's, pointed out the overall lack of care on desire narration. Finally, the introduction generally defined "desire", and pointed out the general feature of Shi Zhecun's desire narration and its status in the literary history.The first chapter began with the collision between modern Chinese desire and the traditional ethical desire, explored the narrative of social and cultural background, and briefly introduced Freud's psychoanalytic theory. Then Chapter I mainly discussed Shi Zhecun's acceptance of Freud's psychoanalysis theory through his own experience, and discussed the difference between Shi Zhecun's psychoanalytical novels and others writers creation.Chapterâ…¡analyzed his early fictions' feature, which was setting up narrators in purpose of finding reasonable explanation and narration intervention. Chapterâ…¡especially analyzed the posture of desire germination behind the linear narrative structure of time, revealed the fact that Shi Zhecun's early novels gradually resembled psychoanalytic fictions.Chapterâ…¢excavated the mature characteristics of Shi Zhecun's narrative, analyzed in detail the "strangization" characters, the figural point of view, internal focalization and internal monologue. Then Chapterâ…¢through the discussion of the linear structure of conscience, pointed out Shi Zhecun's effort on describing the id desire.Chapterâ…£started with the impact of the social background on Shi Zhecun, pointed out his compromise and change toward realism through the analyzes of characters' social typification and the regression of traditional narrative means during this period. Especially focused on his last fictional creation -- "Yellow Heart Master", pointed out his obsession on desire narration and the final appeals.Conclusion focused on digging the sense of Shi Zhecun's desire narration creation in the literary history, then displayed his valuable attempt on the integration of Chinese traditional literature and Western modern literature. It was a rare breakthrough and innovation in the history of Chinese modern literature.