A Study On The Phenomenon Of Contradictoriness In Chinese Web Fantasy Novels

Fantasy literature is one of the oldest genres of world literature.Since Zhu Xueheng,the translator of The Lord of the Rings,brought the concept of “fantasy fiction” into China,it has gained popularity in China and has been one of the most favored literary forms on the Internet today.The Novoland series are a set of fantasy novels written by a team of eminent Chinese writers(hereafter referred to as “the authors”)led by Jiang Nan,which have become amasterpiece of web fantasy fiction in China.The Novoland series pioneer a special model that the authors write independently yet collaborate together to keep the stories in the same fictional universe.The series of novels originated when internet started to develop in mainland China,therefore laying a foundation for the development of web fantasy in China.This paper focuses on the texts of the Novoland series to study the phenomenon of contradictoriness in the novels through perusing.The introduction provides the definition and characteristics of fantasy fiction,outlines the current state of research and future trends on Chinese fantasy literature,and summarizes the development of the Novoland series.The body of the paper is divided into three chapters to deal with three different aspects.Chapter 1 is an analysis of the writing attitudes of the authors and the resources that have supported their work.Most of the writers were born in the late 1970 s and grew up with the rapid development of social economy and culture.In the social context,they have to choose between literature and market in terms of writing attitudes.Meanwhile,the emergence and development of internet in mainland China hlave opened their minds to the whole world and allowed them to draw necessary elements from both Chinese and Western cultures.Chapter 2 discusses the contradictoriness in the theme of the novel series from the view of destiny,emotions,and ideals respectively.The first is the conflict between fatalism and free will from the view of destiny,the second is the unremitting resistance and tolerance or reconciliation from the perspective of emotions,and the third is the overturning and reconstruction of ideals,namely,the upheaval experienced by protagonists from hegemony to impasse.Chapter 3 is an analysis of the contradictoriness in character portrayal by looking at the humanity,divinity,and demonic nature of the characters.The shaping of characters in the Novoland series novels is different from the writing style of the protagonists in general online literature,and reflects on the heroism in traditional literature.The conclusion sums up the contents of the paper.While affirming the achievements of the Novoland series,it points out the limitations as well—in spite of the integral setting of the fictional universe,the independent workof the authors unavoidably leads to problems such as temporal and spatial confusion.