On The Compilation Of Chinese Literary History From The Perspective Of New Historicism Exemplified With The Cambridge History Of Chinese Literature

The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature was published by Cambridge Press in 2010 and as a work produced by a group of sinologists in English-speaking countries,it is the second book that deals with the narration of Chinese literary history in the 21^stt century.The author thinks the book have mainly three features:Firstly,the compilers of the book think highly of the influence of non-textual texts on the development of literature,and they tried to offer a new perspective to the narration of literary history by attaching importance to the analysis of those factors;Secondly,compilers of the book offered a new method on the periodization of literature,a method that is based on the development of literature and emphasize the autonomy of literature;Thirdly,compilers of the book paid more attention to the marginalized literati and their works,and deliberately reduced the description as well as the analysis of the Classics,so as to offer a historical account of the literary development that is more reliable.It is worthy of noting that most scholars who participated in the compilation of the book are a member of American sinology,and it is thus reasonable to regard the book as a reflection of the progress in America in the field of narrating Chinese literary history.New Historicism gained its influence since 1980s,and the most well-known ideas of the theory are“the historicity of texts”and“the textuality of history”.The theory advocate that the analysis of literary works should be combined with the study of political environment,economic conditions as well as cultural development,it also suggest that more attention should be paid to the description of the marginalized groups in the writing of literary history.The author believes the compilation of The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature was influenced by the ideas of New Historicism,and in this paper,the author will offer an analysis of the features of book,from the perspective of New Historicism,and provide ideas about the narration methods in the book.There are altogether six chapters in the thesis:The first chapter offers an introduction to the contents of The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature,the research status of the book as well as the theoretical background and the significance of this paper.In the second chapter,the author firstly describes the situation of Chinese literary history writing in America,and secondly offers an analysis of relevant works about the narration of the history of Chinese literature that emerged from 1960s.Thirdly,the author pays attention to the study of The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature,which is the latest works in America in the 21^st century and a book to represent the trend of study among American sinologists.The third chapter focuses on the fact that The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature pays more attention to non-literary factors,and the author suggests that compilers of the book were influenced by“the historicity of texts”,and they tend to restore the evolution of Chinese literature by summarizing the features of Chinese writing system,describing the influence of writing medium and dissemination methods,and analyzing the relation between religion,economy and literary creation.The fourth chapter pays attention to the practices of compilers of on describing the relationship between history and literature.The author suggests that compilers adopted the ideas of New Historicism,and they tend to emphasize the autonomy of literature and the influence of political environment on the evolution of literature.Meanwhile,the author states that compilers were affected by“the historicity of texts”and“the textuality of history”when they deliberately reduced the attention paid to the Classics and tried to increase the objectivity of literary history by focusing on the study of the marginalized groups.In the fifth chapter,the author is going to discuss the flaws as well innovations of The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature in the narration of literary history after summarizing the advantages and disadvantages of New Historicism.In addition,the author of this paper will point out that the shortcomings of New Historicism lead to the fact that compilers do not have similar ideas about the Classics,and they failed to balance the analysis of non-textual texts and the role of literary works.The sixth chapter is the conclusion part.The author is going to offer a general description of achievements and flaws of The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature at first,and then point out that the methods utilized by the contributors of the book is useful for domestic scholars to put forward a better solution to the description of Chinese literary history,though they have to avoid the flaws of The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature.