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Being an integral part of cultural modernity, literary modernity is an on-going, self-negating, and self-rejuvenating process. It has always been engaged in a dialectical relationship with tradition and is inseparable from the quest for reality based on artistic autonomy and communicative intersubjectivity. In the first half of my thesis, I attempt to show how and why literary tradition has played a decisive role in the process of literary modernity, how and why the Chinese literary tradition is different from its Western counterpart; how and why Chinese literary modernity is influenced by, but different from Western literary modernity; and what is the specific path that Chinese writers have been taking to achieve literary modernity, as is distinct from the route that has been followed in the West, i. e., from romanticism to realism to modernism and to postmodernism. The second half of my thesis comprises a detailed study of two of China's foremost writers, Lu Xun and Shen Congwen, by way of illustrating my arguments. The first two chapters investigate some core concepts in the Western and Chinese literary traditions and the formative roles that they have played respectively in. shaping the process of literary modernity in the West and China. In our study of Chinese literary modernity and modern Chinese writers, we should pay special attention to the important role of the Chinese literary tradition, while taking into consideration the impact of Western literature and China's historical contingency. The interactions between these three factors constitute the special character of China's literary modernity. The third and the fourth chapters deal with respectively the fiction of Lu Xun and Shen Congwen, as well as their conceptions of literature. Through a close investigation of a few selected stories by these two writers, I wish to demonstrate how their works embody the general ideas of literary modernity, and at the same time reveal the peculiar features of China's own literary modernity. In conclusion, I suggest that modernity and tradition have always been intertwined in a complex, dynamic, and dialectic relationship, which has proved to be not only the motive force, but also the unfailing source for the achievements of modern literature, both Chinese and Western; and subjective reflection should be integrated with the lifeworld, and combined with inter subjective communication.

This thesis studies fictional narratives of the countryside by writers of rural origin in English and Chinese literature in relation to the "countryside ideal." The term, borrowed from Michael Bunce, describes an ancient as well as modern theme in literature, which sees the countryside as a desirable "home." The conventional construction of the countryside by urban writers sustains this ideal with simplistic and static images. My thesis extends the discussion beyond the idyllic countryside in the mainstream of Anglo-American culture and the genteel culture in China to concentrate on Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), Shen Congwen (1902-1988), and Mo Yan (b. 1956), who all have personal relations with the countryside and who enrich its image with accounts of actual life, reconnecting it to authentic home place. I discuss fictional narratives of the rural homelands of the three writers not as unmediated transcriptions but as cultural constructs, which are shaped by different literary traditions and responsive to specific historical contexts. My approach is mainly text-based, but supplemented by references to each writer's cultural and historical contexts. The Introduction situates these writers and their rural homelands in relation to the specific interest in the countryside in each writer's cultural milieu. Chapter One reads Hardy's reconstruction of the countryside in light of the struggle for existence in a Darwinian natural world. Hardy's sombre-looking rural landscapes highlight the complex difficulties of rural life and the moral and intellectual qualities required to survive in such a world. Chapter Two studies Shen Congwen's justification of rural culture in the midst of nationalist aspirations for globalization. His multi-layered fictionalization of the rural homeland centres on the image of water, a root symbol of Chinese culture, merging traditional Chinese culture with modernist vitalism. Chapter three examines Mo Yan's reconstruction of the rural homeland after the severe disruption of Chinese culture during the Mao era. Mo Yan's magic realist reconstruction testifies to the repression of the genius loci of his rural homeland by politics and expresses a desire to be reconnected with the original homeland through sensual bonds rather than detached observations. These writers' narratives redefine the countryside in relation to "home" as a centre for meaningful activities. The fact that they reappropriate and situate rural life and work in specific cultural traditions and diverse forms of modernity is manifested in their unique and irreplaceable literary constructions. I will offset Hardy's writing against that of the two Chinese writers, in order to clarify their rich and diverse cultural implications. Whereas Hardy subjects his fictional rural landscape to a scientific approach, Shen Congwen reconfirms traditional Chinese culture, linking it with the ideals of the May Fourth movement for renewal and revitalization. Mo Yan, for his part, combines the rural perspective and faith in the land with a modernist use of magic realism. Fictionalizations of the rural homeland thus reveal complex interactions with modernity.

Being an integral part of cultural modernity, literary modernity is an on-going, self-negating, and self-rejuvenating process. It has always been engaged in a dialectical relationship with tradition and is inseparable from the quest for reality based on artistic autonomy and communicative intersubjectivity. In the first half of my thesis, I attempt to show how and why literary tradition has played a decisive role in the process of literary modernity, how and why the Chinese literary tradition is different from its Western counterpart; how and why Chinese literary modernity is influenced by, but different from Western literary modernity; and what is the specific path that Chinese writers have been taking to achieve literary modernity, as is distinct from the route that has been followed in the West, i. e., from romanticism to realism to modernism and to postmodernism. The second half of my thesis comprises a detailed study of two of China's foremost writers, Lu Xun and Shen Congwen, by way of illustrating my arguments. The first two chapters investigate some core concepts in the Western and Chinese literary traditions and the formative roles that they have played respectively in. shaping the process of literary modernity in the West and China. In our study of Chinese literary modernity and modern Chinese writers, we should pay special attention to the important role of the Chinese literary tradition, while taking into consideration the impact of Western literature and China's historical contingency. The interactions between these three factors constitute the special character of China's literary modernity. The third and the fourth chapters deal with respectively the fiction of Lu Xun and Shen Congwen, as well as their conceptions of literature. Through a close investigation of a few selected stories by these two writers, I wish to demonstrate how their works embody the general ideas of literary modernity, and at the same time reveal the peculiar features of China's own literary modernity. In conclusion, I suggest that modernity and tradition have always been intertwined in a complex, dynamic, and dialectic relationship, which has proved to be not only the motive force, but also the unfailing source for the achievements of modern literature, both Chinese and Western; and subjective reflection should be integrated with the lifeworld, and combined with inter subjective communication. / Arts, Faculty of / Asian Studies, Department of / Graduate

This thesis studies fictional narratives of the countryside by writers of rural origin in English and Chinese literature in relation to the "countryside ideal." The term, borrowed from Michael Bunce, describes an ancient as well as modern theme in literature, which sees the countryside as a desirable "home." The conventional construction of the countryside by urban writers sustains this ideal with simplistic and static images. My thesis extends the discussion beyond the idyllic countryside in the mainstream of Anglo-American culture and the genteel culture in China to concentrate on Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), Shen Congwen (1902-1988), and Mo Yan (b. 1956), who all have personal relations with the countryside and who enrich its image with accounts of actual life, reconnecting it to authentic home place. I discuss fictional narratives of the rural homelands of the three writers not as unmediated transcriptions but as cultural constructs, which are shaped by different literary traditions and responsive to specific historical contexts. My approach is mainly text-based, but supplemented by references to each writer's cultural and historical contexts. The Introduction situates these writers and their rural homelands in relation to the specific interest in the countryside in each writer's cultural milieu. Chapter One reads Hardy's reconstruction of the countryside in light of the struggle for existence in a Darwinian natural world. Hardy's sombre-looking rural landscapes highlight the complex difficulties of rural life and the moral and intellectual qualities required to survive in such a world. Chapter Two studies Shen Congwen's justification of rural culture in the midst of nationalist aspirations for globalization. His multi-layered fictionalization of the rural homeland centres on the image of water, a root symbol of Chinese culture, merging traditional Chinese culture with modernist vitalism. Chapter three examines Mo Yan's reconstruction of the rural homeland after the severe disruption of Chinese culture during the Mao era. Mo Yan's magic realist reconstruction testifies to the repression of the genius loci of his rural homeland by politics and expresses a desire to be reconnected with the original homeland through sensual bonds rather than detached observations. These writers' narratives redefine the countryside in relation to "home" as a centre for meaningful activities. The fact that they reappropriate and situate rural life and work in specific cultural traditions and diverse forms of modernity is manifested in their unique and irreplaceable literary constructions. I will offset Hardy's writing against that of the two Chinese writers, in order to clarify their rich and diverse cultural implications. Whereas Hardy subjects his fictional rural landscape to a scientific approach, Shen Congwen reconfirms traditional Chinese culture, linking it with the ideals of the May Fourth movement for renewal and revitalization. Mo Yan, for his part, combines the rural perspective and faith in the land with a modernist use of magic realism. Fictionalizations of the rural homeland thus reveal complex interactions with modernity. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate