The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century
The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century is a 1980 book edited by
Development
The book was created by a University of Toronto joint research seminar about late Qing fiction that began in 1971.[2]
Content
The front page of the November 10, 1897 Guowen Bao, a newspaper from Tianjin, is used as the front cover of the book. In that issue, the editors of the paper, Yan Fu (a.k.a. Yen Fu) and Xia Zengyou, posted an announcement that the newspaper's literary supplement was beginning.[3]
The book includes a total of nine essays.[4] The essays discuss critical theories and historical significance of various works. Cordell D.K. Yee's review noted that the conventional viewpoint regarding Qing Dynasty novels was that they were "loosely plotted, consisting of episodes simply strung together."[5] Many of the authors of the pieces in this book argued that previous critics of late Qing Dynasty works, such as Lu Xun and Hu Shih, did not grasp the formal sophistication present in the works. Contributors argue that novels belong to specific organizing principles and discuss the structure of the works. They believe that the authors had a higher consciousness of structure than previous analyses had concluded.[5]
Three essays are included in the first portion of the book.[6] "The Rise of 'New Fiction'", by Shu-ying Tsau discusses essays by Yan Fu, Liang Qichao (Liang Ch'i-ch'ao), and other intellectuals which advocated for fiction that called for modernization, since the authors believed fiction had the ability to influence minds of people.[1] The other essays, "Typology of Plot Structures in Late Qing Novels" and "Narrative Modes in Late Qing Novels," were written by the book's editor. In the first essay she discusses different plot structures in Qing Dynasty novels, including Bizarre Happenings Eyewitnessed over Two Decades by Wu Jianren (Wu Woyao). Her second essay discusses three narrative modes in the novels.[6]
Chapters about specific late Qing works make up the second half of the book.
The book includes illustrations of the covers of several works. They include a 1903 issue of
Reception
Richard John Lynn in Pacific Affairs argued that the editor correctly stated that traditional times had major evolutionary processes that lead to the modern period but that the editor and the authors had not "realized the full extent of this interaction and influence" and that he believed they did not "entirely emancipated themselves from the limitations of May Fourth iconoclasm."[12] Lynn argued that even with his critiques, "there is no doubt that this is a very significant contribution to the study of Chinese fiction" and he praised the editor and authors for "presenting a new and challenging look at the premodern-modern watershed in Chinese literary history".[13]
Cordell D. K. Yee in
See also
References
- Doar, Bruce. "The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century" (book review). )
- ISSN 0161-9705, 07/1983, Volume 5, Issue 1/2, pp. 188 – 191
- ISSN 0082-5433, 01/1982, Volume 68, Issue 4/5, pp. 352 – 355
- Liu, Yin C. "The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century" (book review). ISSN 0041-977X, 01/1983, Volume 46, Issue 1, p. 183 - DOI 10.1017/S0041977X00077909
- Lynn, Richard John. "The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century" (book review). ISSN 0030-851X, 10/1983, Volume 56, Issue 3, pp. 542 – 543. - DOI 10.2307/2758214
- "The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century" (book review). ISSN 0333-5372, 10/1982, Volume 3, Issue 4, p. 191
- Yee, Cordell D. K. "The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century" (book review). ISSN 0021-9118, 05/1982, Volume 41, Issue 3, p. 574 - DOI 10.2307/2055256
Notes
Further reading
- "The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century" (book review). ISSN 0021-9118, 05/1982, Volume 41, Issue 3, pp. 574 – 575