The Regional Characteristics Of Popular Literature & Urban Consumption

Yangzhou in Qing Dynasty ( 1644-1911) emerged as a noteworthy big city in terms of its advanced economic development and its greatest achievements in art and literature. With the vision for the temporary demand to inherit the tradition and the theoretical preparation to reconstruct the course of the Yangzhou popular literature, this dissertation, a case study of Yangzhou popular literature in Qing Dynasty, has analysed, from the perspective of regional cultural aspects, the rise and fall and the unique cultural specialties of Yangzhou popular literature. The author hopes, with the increasing urban expansion, to offer a pioneer exploration in meeting the needs to raise the qualities of the urban citizens.The dissertation is divided into six chapters. In Chapter One, the author has surveyed the popular literary activities in Yangzhou in Qing Dynasty. There emerged many famous writers and masterpieces then. Though those writers did not form special groups and claimed themselves as special literary approaches, their literary works demonstrated some common and similar styles and characteristics due to the same common geographic environment, social background and cultural traditions. These writers formed special "Yangzhou Approach" by putting much emphasis on describing the local contemporary popular life and the reality, specifically the life of the common folks, the artists and the intellectuals. The author has roughly divided the Yangzhou popular literature, based on its literary forms, into two categories: oral and written literary creations. The oral one, according to its different functions, is further divided into Yangzhou story-telling, which emphasized the narration, and Yangzhou opera, which emphasized the emotions. Yangzhou Opera is further divided into Yangzhou performing opera and Yangzhou folk songs. The written creations include Zhuzhi poetry, essays describing the folk life and amusing riddles etc.In Chapter Two to Chapter Five, the author has made great endeavour to have analyzed the formative factors of Yangzhou popular literature from the perspectives of cultural geography, historical traditions, urban folk life styles and production and consumption patterns and features. The author has summarized three representative aspects from its formative social geographical factors: water, salt and willow to discuss the characteristics of its popular literature. The author has explored the historical traditions of Yangzhou from poetry, songs and rituals and discussed the formative factors of Yangzhou's popular literature from four aspects: i.e. the dialect, ritual and sacrifice, teahouse and bookstore and trade institutions. The author has also explored the literary consumptive features from three aspects: its pragmatic features, exaggeration and personification. In "Yangzhou popular literary creations in the later Qing Dynasty ", the sixth chapter of the dissertation, the author has briefly analyzed the antithesis concerning its popular literature. The author has pointed out that the spiritual heritage of the former Yangzhou popular literature in "Yuanyang Hudie ( Mandarin Duck and Butterfly)" , the early urban popular literature. In the end of the dissertation, reflecting on the flourishing contemporary urban popular literature, the author has concluded that the soul of popular literature lies in its localness. The prosperity of popular culture exists in maintaining its unique character while keeping up with the modern development and embracing all factors while bearing the avant-guard character.