East Asia Biographical Histories Of Narrative Mode

The record of History(Shi Ji) stands for the on-going development of the narratives in China from the middle of the Warring States Period to the 2^nd Century BC.Such a process unfolds itself not only in the revolution of the narrating mode but also in the evolution of methodology,concept and techniques of narration.The biography style it creates is inherited by the late historians but its mode of narration has undergone great changes in The Hisotry of Han Dynasty(Han Shu).By transforming it into a less personal and literary style,The History of Han Dynasty generates a standard mode of recording the lives of government officials that is to be followed by other official history writings.This thesis applies narratology to the analysis of the narrating modes in both The record of History and The History of Han Dynasty.Through textual analysis of these two books that are also regarded as literary works,this thesis reveals their literary features,their reception and the manipulation in the formation of meaning.Apart from this,this thesis also reconstruct the contexts for both Sima Qian and Ban Gu in the light of philology,and interpretes the development of narratives and history writing from the middle of the Warring States Period to the 1^st Century AD.Then,this thesis compares and contrasts Gim Busik's Samguk Sagi with these two works to review its reception of the modes established by the latter,its ideology and narrating features and depicts the Chinese influence upon the history and literary writing in other East Asian countries.The similarities and differences between this book and History and The History of Han Dynasty bear the witness to Korea's interweaving of its reception of the Chinese culture and its own national awareness.The theories of Narrative apply in this thesis are by Tomashevsky, Todorov,Roland Barthes and Mieke Bal.Theories of history are by R.G.Collingwood and Hayden White.