"A Collection Of Foreign Novels" And The May Fourth New Novels

As the first foreign novel collection translated and published by the Zhou Brothers,Collection of Foreign Short Stories gradually shows its own unique new factors and literary value over time.This thesis focuses on exploring the connection between the new literary ideas embodied in Collection of Foreign Short Stories and the "May Fourth" Novels,and the potential literary value of Collection of Foreign Short Stories.This thesis finds that the new elements in the "May Fourth" Novels have appeared in Collection of Foreign Short Stories,which is the forerunner of the "May Fourth" Novels.Collection of Foreign Short Stories advocates humanitarianism,cares about the lower class,the aged,the children and other vulnerable groups,cares about the weak and small nation,cares about the female problem,criticizes the war crime.These became the new themes of the "May Fourth" Novels too.In addition to the theme,there is a new revolution in the narrative aspect of the novel.In terms of length and ending,Collection of Foreign Short Stories praise the short stories and change the happy ending;Dispelling the plot of the story,from the emphasis is on external narrative to focus on the psychological description of the characters,pay attention to the lyric and language performance of the text;Change Narrative time,abandon the original purely linear time-based narrative way,to use a variety of narrative time such as flashback,psychological time;Break through the narrative perspective,from the omniscient narrative perspective to the first-person Narrative Perspective and the third-person narrative perspective.These new factors also appear in the "May Fourth" Novels.Thus it can be seen that the "May Fourth" Novels draw on and absorb the new themes and new narrative methods in Collection of Foreign Short Stories.Collection of Foreign Short Stories contains great literary value,which is worth exploring and discovering again.