A Register Study Of Aesthetic Value In Local Color Literature

This thesis will use the register theory to analyze the local color literature so as to revealits aesthetic value, which can expand the applied range of register theory and provide theenlightenment for the exploration of local color literature.First and foremost, this thesis reviews the aesthetic studies of local color literature, MoYan and his local color literature. As one kind of literary genre, local color literature’sremarkable feature is to show the “local feature” and “custom” of a certain region, whichregards the industrial civilization as the background. In addition, in the literary world, onereason for the prevalence of local color literature is that it has the certain aesthetic value. Thatmeans objects can meet subject’s aesthetic needs. Mo Yan was the winner of the NobelLiterature Prize in2012. His local color works are attached with authoritative andrepresentative features. That is the reason why this thesis treats his works as the researchobject, which is beneficial to make an in-depth exploration about the author’s writingcharacteristics and the aesthetic value in his works. Mo Yan uses simple folk language tocreate the “Gaomi Northeast Village”, and this legendary country world can be presented byhis real description, the grotesque narration and peculiar imagination.Moreover, the theoretical framework provides a theoretical basis for this thesis. Itpresents the origin of register theory, its definition, register variables and metafunctions oflanguage. Register is the functional variety of language. On the situational level, the threeregister variables are field, tenor and mode. The three metafunctions of language consist ofideational function, interpersonal function and textual function. The field, tenor and modemainly achieve the ideational function, interpersonal function and textual functionrespectively. Then it indicates their realization forms on the lexicogrammatical level: theideational function is mainly realized by transitivity and voice; the interpersonal function ismainly realized by mood and modality; the textual function is mainly realized by thematicstructure, information structure and cohesion.Furthermore, this thesis points out the research method of this study, that is, thedescriptive research. It treats the Mo Yan’s works as the research objects to reveal theaesthetic value in local color literature, and applies the case study and theory speculation into the observation, description and analysis of local color texts.Last but not least, this thesis makes a concrete analysis on the situational andlexicogrammatical level. Firstly, it analyzes Mo Yan’s works from the situational perspective,which consists of the field, tenor and mode aspects. In terms of the topic, environment andsocial activity, it reveals the beauty of ecological culture, absurdity, death, regionalenvironment, cultural environment, rural production activity and living activity, which havediversity beauty, criticism beauty, dreariness beauty, poetic beauty, profundity beauty,primitive beauty and casual beauty respectively. Tenor comprises participants’ roles and affectelements. The heroic figure, tragic character, marginal man and good-hearted person containthe bravery, deepness, silent and kindness beauty respectively. The priceless, sincere, sweetand noble beauty can be respectively presented by the positive affect elements among familymembers, lovers, strangers and comrades-in-arms. The negative ones are: the worry shows theunstable beauty; the contempt has to do with the individual beauty. On the situational level,the mode contains three parts, i.e. the written type, spoken type and body language. Ituncovers the aesthetic value of them: free beauty of first-person omniscient narration, partialbeauty of third-person limited narration, simple beauty of figure of speech, informal beauty ofspoken type and candid beauty of body language. Secondly, it analyzes Mo Yan’s local colorliterature from the lexicogrammatical perspective, including the transitivity, mood, modality,thematic structure and information structure. That not only demonstrates the relationship withthe theme, main idea, participants and text, but also shows the presentation of beauty and itsformation mechanism. The material process embodies the natural beauty; the existentialbeauty belongs to the static category; mood and modality contains the dynamic beauty;thematic structure implies the feeling beauty; the vivid beauty is mainly produced from theinformation structure.