| In the following thesis I examine the question of the function and meaning of myth in Chinese Socialist Realist fiction. Using the theoretical approach suggested by Katerina Clark in her seminal work, The Soviet Novel: History as Ritual, I analyze the text from three Chinese Socialist Realist novels (Hurricane, Tracks in the Snowy Forest, and Red Crag) to establish that Chinese Socialist Realist writers did, in fact, use a symbolic subtext to incorporate elements of official Chinese Communist Party mythology into the body of their works.;Following the establishment of this fact, I go on to demonstrate how Chinese writers encoded Marxist-Leninist ideology into a symbolic vocabulary that was recognizable to the Chinese people. By analyzing the text from the aforementioned novels I demonstrate how Chinese writers manipulated the informing values of traditional Chinese heroes to validate the elite status of the new Socialist Realist hero. (Abstract shortened by UMI.). |
