A Historical Study of Early Modern Chinese Fictions (1890--1920)

ISBN-13: 9789813348882 / Angielski / Twarda / 2021 / 252 str.

Pingyuan Chen

Spis treści

Chapter One Birth of New Fiction in China

1.1 Origin and Development of the Fiction Revolution in China
1.2 Force behind the New Fiction
1.3 Rise of the New Novelists
1.4 The New Fiction as the Usher of the 20th-century Modern Chinese Fiction
Chapter Two Inspiration and Simulation from Foreign Fictions
2.1 An Open Eye to the World
2.2 Free translation in trend
2.3 Achievements of Translation of Foreign Fictions
2.4 Misunderstanding in the acceptance of foreign fictions

Chapter Three Commercialization and rise of book printing
3.1 Development of markets for fictions
3.2 Professionalization of fictionists
3.3 Commercialization of New Fictions
3.4 Transference from “telling-listening” to “writing-reading”
Chapter Four Wandering between philistine and elegance
4.1 Between philistine-and-elegance and new-and-old
4.2 From philistine to elegance---attempt of social redemption of China
4.3 From elegance to philistine---entertainment of the Saturday Group
4.4 Co-existence of philistine and elegance
Chapter Five Episodic structure and fragmentation
5.1 Bead-string structure
5.2 Episodic structure
5.3 Resurgence of short stories
5.4 Miniascape and fragmentation
Chapter Six Fiction mixed with classical and modern vernacular Chinese
6.1 Growth and decline of classical and vernacular Chinese fictions
6.2 Vernacular Chinese fictions and dialect fictions
6.3 Classical Chinese fictions and fictions of rhythmical prose with parallelism and ornateness
6.4 Style of fictions with translationese
Chapter Seven Officialdom fictions and romances
7.1 Resolution of the mode of “either allegiance or treachery”
7.2 Decline of the mode of “antagonism between the government and the civilians”
7.3 Cold-hearted lovers
7.4 Cultural sense of fictions of love triangles
Chapter Eight Narration of travelers
8.1 Thematic inspiration and holistic perception
8.2 Supplement to history and limited narration
8.3 Travel notes as fictions
8.4 Onlookers of livelihood of the public
Chapter Nine Documentation, reproach and sentimentality
9.1 From realism to documentation
9.2 From satire to reproach
9.3 From tragic solemnity to mournful beauty

O autorze

Pingyuan Chen is Professor at Peking University of China, who is also awarded Changjiang Scholar by the Chinese Ministry of Education as well as the winner of a number of national awards for his outstanding research achievements in modern Chinese literature, especially to modern Chinese fiction. He has been Visiting Scholar at some of the world’s top universities, such as Harvard University, Columbia University, University of London, French Academy of Oriental languages and Culture, Tokyo University, and Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Blurb

This book contains a classic guide to historical study of early modern Chinese fiction from the late Qing Dynasty till early republican China. It does not merely study the new fiction writing in China, which was strongly influenced by the western fiction, but also draws a comparison between classical Chinese fiction and the early modern Chinese fiction. This book is an excellent reference in the study of early modern Chinese literature since it conveys a point of view to the readers with abundant and solid historical materials. At the heart of the book, it is the matter of a specific value in trans-cultural studies between the western world and China.