The Study Of Landlord Image’s Type In17—year Novels

The modern and contemporary Chinese novels portray a great variety of the old China’s landlord figures; yet studies on these figures have been absent. The studies on this most important negative figure from the novels from1949to1966(referred to as the17-year novels here after) lack systematicness, comprehensiveness and objectivity. I believe that studies on the portraying of the landlord figures from the17-year novels will help us retrospecting and reconstituting the17-year literature trend in terms of literary-historical significance. This thesis will approach this issue by studies on3aspects, which are study on the types of landlord figures from the17-year novels and the extension of these types, study on the sanctions to create such landlord figures as "evil tyrants" and the effect these figures have had and study on the subjectivity of the authors and homogeneity of the peasant and landlord charaters portrayed, in order to discuss the peculiarity of the landlord figures portrayed in the17-year novels, and unveil the paradox between the authors’ embrace of and resist to the ideologies of the time.In the prologue, a variety of Landlord figures portrayed in from the Revolution Literature and the Left-Wing Literature to the YAN-AN Literature are analysed. Following this analytical line, we are able to see how the image of the landlords has gradually become to be portrayed as representing the ethically corrupted; this gradual variation leads to the following studies.In chapter one, the types of the landlord figures from the17-year novels and the extension of these types are discussed. The types of landlords are described separately, and also are classified as from novels of "Revolution historical" or "Non-Revolution historical" themes. The characteristics of the "landlords’ family" and the landlords’"circumstances of existence" are also discussed here.Chapter two discusses two issues, one being the policy sanctions to rendering such figures as "evil tyrants", the other being what effects such figure have had. Sanctioned by a series of policies and papers, rendering of the "evil tyrant" figures had incited accumulative negative effects that alienate relations between citizens.Chapter three is focused on the authors’ subjectivity reflected in the novels. The authors’ subjectivity is often reflected by the narrations tending to "landlord-ize" the peasant figures. Without violating the ideological rules, the authors often try to insinuate their own views under normative narratives. The overlapping characteristics of the landlord and peasant figures depict a blurring boundary between them, implying that they are mutually substitutable; this implication also reflects the authors’ worry of and query to the classifying of society of the time.