A Study On Folk Customs In Shen Congwen’s Xiangxi Novels

Shen Congwen is a folk writer who has written a lot all his life.Among all his novels,Xiangxi novels are highly praised for their large number of folklore.In the1920 s,Chinese modern local literature and Chinese folklore promoted and penetrated each other,which deeply influenced Shen Congwen when he was just entering the literary world.In the 1920 s,Chinese modern local literature and Chinese folklore promoted and penetrated each other,which deeply influenced Shen Congwen when he was just entering the literary world.The local conditions and customs of his hometown Xiangxi gave him deep nourishment.After coming to Beijing,under the promotion of the ballad study movement in Peking University,Shen Congwen finally formed his own unique folk concept.Xiangxi novels vividly present the unique folk customs of Xiangxi from four aspects of material folk custom,social folk custom,spiritual folk custom and language folk custom.Folk custom,as the history of culture and historical culture,is the accumulation of traditional culture.The writer writes specific folk customs into his works,which not only makes them have a distinct regional color,but also greatly enriches the ideological implication of his works.Shen expressed his tendency of cultural conservatism and his love for rural areas in Xiangxi,which was born from the rebellion against modernity,and his observation of the life consciousness of the people in Xiangxi.At the same time,Shen walks in the past and present of Xiangxi,with the help of the description of folk customs in Xiangxi,he expresses his utopian literary ideal and his elegy for the loss of local civilization under the attack of modern civilization.This paper includes five parts: introduction,the relationship between Shen Congwen and folk custom,the concrete manifestation of folk custom in Xiangxi novels,the ideological implication and conclusion.The introduction is divided into two sections.The first section mainly discusses the significance of this paper.The second section introduces the research status and trend of Xiangxi novels at home and abroad.The first chapter discusses the relationship between Shen and folk custom from the two aspects of the subject origin of Chinese modern local literature and Chinese folklore and the formation of Shen’s folk view.The second chapter includes four sections,from the four aspects of material folk custom,social folk custom,spiritual folk custom and language folk custom to elaborate the concrete manifestation of Xiangxi novel folk custom.The third chapter consists of three sections.The first section discusses Shen’s attachment to local civilization and shows his tendency of cultural conservatism.The second section discusses the writer’s praise to the original vitality of Xiangxi people.The third section discusses Shen’s rural utopian literary ideal and elegy feelings.The last part is the conclusion of the thesis,summarizing the research significance and literary value of Shen’s description of folk customs in Xiangxi novels.