As the second volume of a two-volume set on Chinese narratology, this title investigates the perspective, image, and commenter that form the characteristics of the Chinese narrative style.
The first chapter introduces two opposing concepts of perspective, the “focalization” and “blind spot,” to connect “perspective” with the traditional aesthetic law, highlighting the mutual promotive relation of the non-existent and the existent. The author believes that both the narrator and perspective are the narrative forms and strategies adopted by Chinese writers and that the study of the narrator and perspective is integral to understanding the cultural, aesthetic, and philosophical connotations of the narrative text and the spiritual world of its writer. Drawing on perceptual phenomenology, the chapter on image broadens the extant knowledge of “image” and points out that image narration is unique to Chinese narratology and central to Chinese aesthetics. The final chapter illustrating the achievements of influential critics of classical Chinese novels proves that these critics have contributed to the canonization of the genuine masterpieces of Chinese narrative literature.
The book is a must-read for scholars and students interested in narrative theory, Chinese culture and literature, and dialogue between Chinese and Western narratological studies.
Biography
Yang Yi (杨义) is a Research Fellow and Doctoral Supervisor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and a CASS member. His research fields include the interaction of Chinese literature and culture, Chinese narratology, poetics of Chinese literature, and Chinese cultural thought.
