A study on romance fiction in 90s at Taiwan

• Main Authors: Lai Yu Chin, 賴育琴
• Other Authors: Fan ming-Ru
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/08672878587800582625

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 中國文學系 === 89 === Title of Tesis：A study on romance fiction in 90s at TaiwanTotal Page:133 Name of Institute：Graduate Institute of Chinese Literature,Tamkang University Graduate date：June,2001Degree Conferred：Master Name of Student：Lai,Yu-ChinAdvisor：Dr.Fan,ming-Ru Abstract Regardless of the quantity of publication or composition, the status of romance fiction at present Taiwan is not to be taken lightly; not only the quantity of local composition has preceded its foreign translated counterpart, but it has also adopted the characteristic of other genre to provide a greater variation. To better discuss sentimental fiction, we inevitably have to bring its locus─book rental shops─into discussion. Book rental shops survive best in low-income areas and are similar to the “kasihonja” in Japan after World War II. “Kasihonja” disappears after Japan’s economy soared, resulting in the increase of consumer ability and expanding of consumer literature. On the other hand, the greater demand for consumer literature brought down the cost of book rental, but the capitalized cost of “kasihonja” increased due to towering land price. “Kasihonja” could not survive the fierce competition and are eliminated from the business. These few years, Taiwan’s economy developed rapidly resulting in increased national consumption ability but even then, the book rental shops have not disappeared. This is because popular literature needs a huge market to sustain, and the population of Taiwan is unable to provide such market; thus the market price of books cannot be lowered by selling large quantity of books─different from the situation in Japan. Book rental shops need a great variety and quantity of books to sustain their customers’ appetite, therefore they have almost no selection of books but to bring in large amounts. Due to the fixed number of shops, it is easy for the publishers to control market condition and the customers have to spend only one-tenth of the price to indulge in the joy of reading. In this situation of mutual benefit, these three form a closed commensalism system. In Foucault’s “Discipline and Punish———The Birth of Prison” uses the management system of the jail to analyze the effect of authority on the individual. From a certain aspect, book rental shop and the jail has very similar power structure. They both use all kinds of methods to achieve the aim of transforming man. The low-priced consuming mode of book rental shop makes the originally hidden mass population of reader reveal themselves, at the same time converge at one point. As a result the chief manufacturer of culture industry─publisher─have the best chance to carry out the domestication of readers. The fiction’s conservative nature unconsciously makes patriarchal ideology its motif. The outcome, though not painstakingly, makes the culture industry an accomplice of patriarchy. Consequently, it is not difficult to make out the major structure of the fiction─declaration of patriarchal dogma. Nevertheless, though the net of the patriarchal structure is closely knitted, certain detailed description manages to escape and rebel against it. This thesis is divided into four parts: the first part aims to discuss the cultural mechanism of book rental shop; the second, discusses how family value is safeguarded in heterosexual relationship. In the third part, we discuss how minor detail rebel against mainstream value of the principal structure. Last but not least, we consider some remarkable shifts in fiction that results from the influence of postmodernism.