Study Of Novel Female Image Of The Late Qing Dynasty Brothel

Courtesan literature cannot be neglected in the Chinese literature tradition. During the late Qing Dynasty with the great change of the national situation,however, the courtesan novels developed prosperously.After reading these courtesan novels,I found the images of the courtesans also changed greatly.They showed the modernity silently.This thesis gathers all of the courtesan novels in the late Qing Dynasty together to study.On the basis of the history and through the careful scrutiny of the texts,I study the images of the courtesans,attempting to discover the specialties of the courtesans in the late Qing Dynasty courtesan novels.This thesis is made up of the prologue,four chapters and the epilogue.The prologue retrospect the whole studies of the courtesan novels in the late Qing Dynasty,pointing out the rest questions need to solve and identifying the aim of the thesis.Chapter 1 deals with the reason of the prosperity of courtesan novels in the late Qing Dynasty in three aspects including the social situation,the tradition of courtesan literature in the history and the transmission of the courtesan novels in the late Qing Dynasty.Chapter 2 classifies the images of the courtesans according to their specialties into "pursuing money","pursuing talents" and "pursuing love".After the classification,I analyze their values,ethics,emotions and people's relationships of each type.Chapter 3 focus on the theory of "Realism" to explore the characterization of the courtesan images through the studies of their portrait,language and mental descriptions.Chapter 4 reveals the modernity by studying the metropolitanization and independence reflected by these courtesan images.The epilogue concludes the thesis and indicates the value of the study of the courtesan images in the courtesan novels in the late Qing Dynasty.