Twentieth-Century Chinese Novel Theory Materials (Volume 1)

Author: Chen Pingyuan and Xia Xiaohong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1997-02-01
Features:
1. The modern Chinese fiction theory materials in this volume range from 1897 to 1916.
2. The scope includes essays, prefaces and postfaces, miscellaneous reviews, notes, letters, speeches, monographs, etc. Longer selections are appropriately excerpted.
3. The focus of selection is: first, materials related to important writers and works of this period; second, the founding statements of fiction magazines; third, introductions to Western fiction and reassessments of traditional fiction.
4. During this period, most fiction writers and theorists emphasized the role of fiction in enlightening the public and improving society, with similar arguments. However, the evolution of fiction's artistic forms and techniques during this time, though unconscious, is more noteworthy.
5. The proportion of selected and omitted materials is roughly more extensive earlier and more concise later. The earlier materials are more valuable due to fewer scholars discussing them at the time, while later materials, with more available discussions, require more selective precision.
6. At the end of the volume, an index titled "Bibliography of Chinese Fiction Theory Materials (1897-1916)" is appended.