| Satirical essay is a new genre of newspaper article which gradually emerged and widely popular in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.These satirical essays are based on the newspapers and magazines represented by Free Talk on Shen bao,on the basis of continuing the tradition of comic literature,it radiates new vigor and vitality in the new context of the new era.As a special literary form in the transformation period of modern society,satirical essays are a kind of consumer style integrating interest and criticism in the integration of modern newspapers and periodicals.Therefore,this paper takes satirical essays as the main research object to investigate the literary value and social value implied in satirical essays.This thesis falls into four parts.The introduction part mainly combs the research status and leads to the reasons for prosperity of satirical essays.Then,in combination with the background of the transition from feudalism to republic,and analyzes the phenomenon of marginalization of satirical essay writers.The reform of the education system led to the loss of the political privilege and self-marginalization of the traditional literati,who choose to participate in politics in the way of " funny " words to make up for the sense of loss of political discourse power of the literati after the abolition of the imperial examination.The first chapter will return to the historical scene and explore the rich topics of satirical essays in the context of "republic".In the context of national salvation and enlightenment in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China,satirical essays show the characteristics of national discourse,which can be divided into three levels:Firstly,from the national level,the group of satirical essay writers intervene in reality with a positive attitude,expressing their dissatisfaction and resentment towards the political system.Secondly,in terms of the social aspect,the satirical essay focuses on stagnation of social climate in the process of era transformation,criticizes bad social trends,advises and guides social trends,and transforms society to achieve the effect of awakening the world.Thirdly,at the personal level,the author criticizes some typical characters and citizens’ bad quality in the society,in order to achieve the purpose of regulating people.The second chapter focuses on the two artistic forms of satirical essays: literary form and rhetoric.Satirical essay,as a cross-stylistic concept including various styles,has a variety of stylistic forms.It is mainly manifested as the convergence of ancient traditional official documents and folk art forms.The downward movement of the former not only brings the psychological pleasure of solemnity being torn,but also contains the common cultural memory of the writer group behind.The latter entered into the context of literary creation,making the satirical essay a unique style of both upper and lower.Secondly,the use of rhetorical devices such as parody,collage and renovation make the game meaning of the satirical essay more intense.The use of "funny" and "witty" writing strategies,presents the appearance of entertain mentalism discourse on the surface,but in fact,it is written with the banter discourse with the color of strongly exhorting sarcasm,which eventually leads to the significance of "awakening the world".The third chapter focuses on the communication platform of satirical essays,namely the modern mass media—the press.Starting from the relationship between the press and the book company,combining with the development of the modern postal system,to explores the internal production mechanism of the press as a communication platform,as well as the construction of public sphere.Secondly,the group of satirical essay writers,who are gathered by geographical relations and radiated by interpersonal relations,make great contributions to the formation of public sphere to some extent by communicating with newspapers and magazines.Finally,under the banner of "games",writers of satirical essay have created a public opinion model that is both critical and game-like,creating a new space in the narrow public opinion space and creating a criticism tradition of "the speaker is not guilty".The conclusion summarizes the ideas of the thesis and points out the significance of the research.On the basis of collecting and sorting out first-hand historical materials such as newspapers and periodicals,this paper starts from the text content and has a dialogue with the text.This paper tries to explore the rich topic resources and writing paradigm of satirical essays through the research of historical materials and the combination of internal research and external research,and ponders its practical significance as a mode of marginal criticism in the past and at present. |
