Giles's A History Of Chinese Literature: The Conception Of Literary History And The Conception Of Genre

Herbert. Allen. Giles (1845-1935) is an extremely important Sinologist, the second professor of Sinology in Cambridge. He had won the Stanislas Julien Prize for twice times. A History of Chinese Literature written by Giles is the earliest "Chinese literary history" in English world. This dissertation tries to analyze the conception of literary history and the conception of genre reflected in Giles's A History of Chinese Literature through the method of periodization, the historical materials, the laws of literary development and the descriptions about poems, novels and dramas. To recognize unique value and historical position of this book, I have compared this book with other "Chinese literary history" written in 19th century.Chapter 1 introduces background of the book. Section 1 introduces Giles's Sinological achievements; Section 2 explains that Giles took English readers'abilities, aesthetic tastes and social customs into consideration in the process of his writing; Section 3 compares all the editions of Giles'A History of Chinese Literature. I find that all editions are the same. It shows that Giles's academic thought has not changed much.Chapter2 detailed studies Giles's conception of literary history through analyzing constructive methods of literary history. Section 1 describes Giles's method of periodization. It indicates that Giles paid much attention to the influences of political changes on literature. Section2 analyzes the characteristics of historical materials collected in this book. I also try to explain the reasons for those characteristics. Section3 studies Giles's conception of literary history by analyzing the reasons of literary development. I conclude that Giles has relatively matured conception of literary history: he viewed literature as a significant product of circumstances and stressed the influences of political changes and atmosphere changes on literary development.Chapter 3 inspects Giles's conception of genre. Sectionl investigates the concept of poems. Giles thought that "the great bulk of poems are also lyrical, as well as in rhyme" and "Brevity is indeed the soul of a Chinese poem". Section2 studies the view of novels: fictionality is an important characteristic of Chinese novel. Novels could reflect social customs as well. Section3 inspects the view of dramas:Chinese drama is a kind of performing art. Therefore, Giles focused on performing systems of dramas and qualities of actors.The last past summarizes the whole text.