Yu Dafu 's Autobiographical Lyrical Novel Writing

Yu Dafu is a famous poet and writer in Modern Chinese literature. He enjoyed equal popularity with Lu Xun in the 1930s and was praised as"Rousseau of China". In accordance with his temperament and aesthetic pursuit, he started a new literary style—autobiographical narration, which was unique and occupies a decisive position in Yu Dafu's art world. It also had great influence on the development of Modern Chinese literature. However, it must be admitted that the success of Yu's autobio- graphical narratives had much to do with the Japanese"I-novel". This thesis begins with a close look at the Japanese"I-novel". Then by means of comparative study, it tries to probe into what Yu Dafu learned from the Japanese"I-novel"in his autobiographical narratives and the improvement he made. It intends to reveal the uniqueness that lies in Yu Dafu's literary works.There are three chapters in this thesis. The first chapter is a definition and classification of the lyrical style that Yu Dafu started. Although autobiographical narration has much in common with the Japanese"I-novel", it has its own characteristics. So a comparison is made in detail between Yu's auto-narrated lyrical style and the"I-novel"style. It goes further into the reasons that cause the difference between these two literary styles, which will provide a new angle for the study of Yu's autobiographical narratives.The second chapter is about the way of narration in Yu's autobiographical narratives. It is essential that we interpret the comparison between Yu's lyrical style and the"I-novel"style from the perspective of narratology. In his autobiographical narratives Yu Dafu drew on the trinity mode of narration from the Japanese"I-novel"writers. However, owing to different milieu and writing mentality as well as different aesthetic standards, Yu Dafu's autobiographical narratives are different from the"I-novel"in many aspects, such as narrative person, the use of point of view and the arrangement of narrative time in the text. Thus Yu's autobiographical narratives achieve a special aesthetics effect.Chapter three discusses the viewpoint of truthfulness in Yu Dafu's autobio- graphical narratives. Yu drew on the viewpoint of truthfulness from the Japanese"I-novel", which not only places emphasis on the truthfulness of material collecting, but also attaches importance to the real expression of the writer's mental state. However, Yu Dafu took a more tolerant attitude toward fictionalization in his autobiographical narratives because of the difference in literary tradition, social background and the writer's artistic view between China and Japan. From one aspect Yu Dafu's consistent pursuit of artistic truthfulness in his autobiographical narratives takes a leap over the Japanese"I-novel".