Research On Chinese Web-novel:A Perspective Of The Circuit Of Culture

Chinese web-novel is one product of the combination of literature and information technology in the network society.Though it started from being in a marginal position in the field of literature,it has become one of the most popular kinds of mass culture in Mainland China during last twenty years.To this booming and knotty cultural landscape,the academia adopted an indifferent attitude at first,while with the massive commercial success of web-novel,their apathy was replaced by two kinds of attention.Some researchers focus on the commodity nature of web-novel and embrace it as a role model of other sorts of popular culture.Some other scholars emphasize particularly on the cultural attribute of web-novel and criticize its shallow content and low literariness from the top down.However,it is a must to overcome the gap between these two kinds of prejudice in order to understand the cultural context of web-novel thoroughly and profoundly.With the help of the perspective and method of cultural studies,this goal can be achieved.Based on the circuit of culture proposed by Stuart Hall and his colleagues,I introduced Modernity and Hegemony into this theory to recontextualize it to the special conditions of the birth and development of Chinese web-novel.Then,I analysed the five cultural processes of web-novel step by step,which include Representation,Identity,Production,Consumption and Regulation.To be specific,in Chapter One,Introduction,I claimed the necessity of studying Chinese web-novel with the perspective and method of culture studies after mentioning the background of it and the achievements and insufficiency of existing studies.In Chapter Two,I accommodated the theories of Stuart Hall with Modernity and Cultural Hegemony to the sociocultural context of Chinese web-novel and proposed an analytical frame.In Chapter Three,I dealt with the Representation and Identity of Chinese web-novel from the level of symbol and culture.I pointed out that Chinese web-novel was a product of the resistance against the hegemony of traditional production mechanism of literature,and the gap between literature modernity and the need of light literature of modern Chinese has provided plenty of space to the formation and enlargement of the market of it.Then I analyzed the Production and Consumption of Chinese web-novel in the aspect of the economy in Chapter Four and declared that it has fallen into the trap of categorization,homogenization and entertainment along with its commercial success.The hegemony against traditional literature production has come into being and this hegemony is being reinforced by the multiple reproductions of Chinese web-novel.From the perspective of social norms,I analyzed the realistic difficulties for Chinese web-novel and the regulation from both interior and exterior.The heteronomy Chinese web-novel has received since it was fully commercialized decides that whether there will be breakthroughs during its future development mainly depends on the change of its readers' taste and the discipline and guidance of cultural policies.At last,Chapter Six summarized and reflected the whole study and gave some advice to the future studies.