A Study On Wang Zengqi’s Rewritingios Previous Works

Wang Zengqi has the habit of rewriting his previous works.The academic circle has noticed this phenomenon in his novels and has tried to explore its significance and literary value.However,research on this topic is still inadequate and fragmented.Therefore,this study selects the 18 novels which have been rewritten from Wang’s 160 novels and thoroughly compares each edition.Based on the modern theories such as New Literary Criticism and Narratology and past research in this field,this study analyzes the changes made in each edition in aspect of the content and artistic values,explores the unique artistic charm of Wang’s novels and the motivation of his rewriting,and evaluates the gains and losses of making the changes.The mirror of rewriting reflects the development path of Wang’s writing.It can open up the connotation of his creative thoughts,aesthetic pursuits,artistic expressions,and writing styles.It can also emphasize the self-consciousness of Wang,and hopefully,widen the horizon of studies on Wang,or even on the history of literature.The paper is divided into three chapters to discuss Wang’s rewriting of previous works:The author sorts through Wang’s rewritten novels: counts up all the rewritten chapters;records the year and the magnitude of each change;categorizes the changes by the ways how the contents have been changed,such as the change of the theme,the change of the plot,and the change of the characterization;analyzes the changes by comparing different editions.Chapter 2: The author analyzes the rewritten novels in the artistic aspect,and elaborates the results mainly from the aspects of narrative strategy and novel language.In terms of narrative strategy,the author mainly explores the narrative focus,narrative time and space,narrative structure and the transformation of narrative voice.In terms of the polish of the language,the author expounds the colloquialization and the localization of the language.Chapter 3: The author analyzes the motivation and the significance of Wang’s rewriting of previous works.When expounding the motivation of rewriting,the author examines the driving role of Wang’s conception,considering his life experience and historical background and corresponding with the first two chapters.When expounding the significance of rewriting,the author divides the discussion into two parts: the significance to the writer himself and the significance to the history of literature.