Merchants In The Cultural Context Of The New Novel

Literary works dealing with commercial subject are all along on the cutting edge of researches. In marked-driven economy, however, people begin to pay attention to the importance of commerce as well as literature concerning such subject. Thanks to the Reform and Opening Policy and strong promotions of social development, literary works on commercial subject continue to emerge and novels covering economic, financial and commercial themes thrive gradually, of which those on commerce and finance in socialist market economy settings consist of a major part. They are realistic and conform to the times. Yet in 1990s, a special kind of novel on commercial theme which is characterized by not focusing on the current situation derives from the current set of novel. Instead of being realistic to the current economic settings, this kind of novel explores'merchant'images from the cradle to the growing period of capitalist economy in China—from late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty to the foundation of People's Republic of China. Merchant images in this kind of novel are distinguished as being'capitalists'and'quite different from the ancient merchant'.Researches on the contemporary novels describing merchant images are favorable to reviewing historical periods from the viewpoint of texts, instructing and reflecting upon the current economic situation from the perspective of culture. This paper examines depictions of the commercial culture, tragic heroism and specific narrative patterns by focusing on the cultural ideas, heroism and aesthetic ideas in merchant novels. This paper places emphasis on the combination of macro theoretical illustration and concrete textual interpretation, aiming at a better understanding of the culture and aesthetic charms in merchant novels.This paper falls into five parts.The first part introduces the definition of'contemporary merchant novel'and a brief analysis of reasons for the flourish of merchant novel in contemporary cultural background.Chapter one, cultural ideas in merchant novel, focuses on not only how but also what novelists depict the commercial culture by using commercial symbols such as merchant, business and business competition from textual point of view. It examines the commercial culture from three aspects:'attention of the commercial culture','advocacy and further development of the commercial moral','arguments on commercial ethics'.Chapter two, heroism in merchant novel, discusses merchant images. Novelists can not represent commercial culture, moral and ethics without describing merchants and their commercial activities. The typical merchant image in such novels is tragic hero. This part grasps the heroic merchant images in'conflicts between merchant hero and historical period','conflicts between merchant hero and commercial civilization','conflicts between hero and his ego'and comprehends tragic destinations from their struggles and challenges.Chapter three, aesthetic ideas in merchant novel, points out writing styles of merchant novels. This kind of novel obtains the traditional zhanghui style in classic Chinese literature with attractive plots, well-organized and alive rhythm. A kind of aesthetic return of classic Chinese novels can also be found in contemporary merchant novels. This part shows the applications and representations of traditional aesthetics in classic Chinese novels in contemporary merchant novels from two aspects—'the unofficial narrative pattern of heroes';'realistic connotation and fictional design of plot'.The conclusion part points out the inadequacies of this paper as well as the further researches on the merchant novels. There is still a long way to explore charms of the merchant novels and values of textual genetic theory, writer's creation theory and textual reception theory. The contemporary merchant novels are thriving and new literary works on commercial subject will come out one after another. These will definitely lead to our further researches.