Metaphors of Nation and History : A study on Chinese Chivalric Romances from 1895-1945

• Main Authors: KO CHIA CIAN, 高嘉謙
• Other Authors: NG KIM CHEW
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/84027394670488507632

碩士 === 國立暨南國際大學 === 中國語文學系 === 90 === The present study attempts to explore the narrative patterns and the allegories of nations and history in chivalric discourse by investigating the chivalric texts from 1895 to 1945, including Chivalric and Court-Case Fictions of late Qing dynasty and modern Chinese chivalric novels. This thesis comprises six chapters, which can be further classified into two major parts. Introduction provides the theoretical framework and the organization of the thesis. It also discusses what the recent chivalry craze is all about and investigates chivalry novels for commercial purpose and how they integrated into the realm of classical Chinese literature and have their place. Chapter two aims to present the “modern sense” of Chivalric works in terms of the suppressed modernism in the course of modern novelization and in modern popular novels. The third chapter pays particular attention to the concept “chivalry” and how it derived from demand of popular literature. Chivalry is examined from the perspective of mental analysis of the race. It attempts to construct the historical and cultural context in order to bring up the notion of chivalry as a cultural code and discuss how protagonists are served as a symbol of a nation and how they granted the wish of the public. Basically the first part carefully examines the issues of chivalric novels from cultural and historical point of view. The second part turns to analyze some individual works in support of the ideas represented in the first part. The fourth chapter examines the concept of justice and some related notions like pacification, reclusion and revolution. Chapter five is devoted to the allegorization of modern chivalric novels so that we can roughly draw a line between realistic and fictitious nature of the chivalric narratives. “Body”, “Rite-of-passage” and “Brotherhood of River and Lake” have been identified as three essential subtopics in chivalric writings. Human bodies described to be invulnerable in novels actually reflects the hysterical illusion about the invincibility of human body in their corresponding era. Rite-of-passage is carried out by young chivalric heroes who step into the real world, encountering dangers which finally mature their personality and martial skills. The creation of roles of adolescent heroes may be inspired by young boys who were sent to study in the U.S in late Qing dynasty and the revolutionary ideas of the young intellectuals in Ming Guo as well. The scene and time set in Brotherhood of River and Lake is where the narrative fascination lies and where the dream of an Utopia come true. Finally, the last chapter is the conclusion and suggestion for further research. It is concluded with Jin-Yong’s chivalric works which epitomize chivalric narrative tradition and its popularity.