A Cultural Interpretation On Chinese Commercial Novels In Recent 20 Years

Commercial novels are a sub-genre of novels, and Chinese commercial novels have accompanied with the development of Chinese novels. However, in Chinese literary criticism, commercial novels have long been neglected, even without a formal recognized name. Since China’s reform and opening in the 1980s, commercial novels have obtained unprecedented growth opportunities, especially in the recent 20 years. Along with the establishment of the market economy system, commercial society and merchant groups’ up-springing, commercial novels have flourished quickly. But their criticisms and interpretations are still in the pioneering stage. In order to expand the research scope and value space of the contemporary literature, this dissertation aims to use commercial novels in the recent 20 years as a research object, with cultural criticism as the foothold, to do research on the cultural characteristics of the most influential cultural highlights in them, discussing how they join the modern transformation with a kind of cultural identity at the turn of the century and how the complex cultural values affect their narrative strategies and aesthetics.The dissertation is divided into five parts.The introduction explains the origin, significance and literature review of the research, defines the core concepts involved and introduces the primary methodology as well as the major contents. This research is initiated from the fact that in the recent 20 years, novels about merchants and business have experienced unprecedented prosperity, while the literary criticism is still "aphasic". Thus, to name them and define their connotations become the trigger of this study. Compared with the traditional literary canons, the advantages of commercial novels lie in their cultural features developing with social transformation and social polarization rather than their aesthetic charms. Therefore, based on the interdisciplinary perspective, with the approach of cultural criticism, this dissertation aims to carry out the cultural interpretation on commercial novels in recent 20 years, which is a strategic choice that can match the critical object. The first chapter discusses the modern transformation of Chinese commercial novels’ narrative. In the Chinese literary history, commercial novels are often generated in some cultural background on which they often exert influence with their own unique narrative forms. In the new period of time, the modernity of Chinese literature leads the reform of commercial novels’ narrative. Especially in the recent 20 years, with the rise of merchant class, the genre of commercial novels and their cultural implications become more obvious. And the political, economic and cultural power have achieved their ideographic strategy in different forms, which promotes their discourse from a weak position to a strong one, and the growth of the symbolic power. All this declares the modern transformation of the commercial novels’ narrative.The second chapter studies the interpretation of merchant spirit in commercial novels. The coming of the commercial era has unprecedentedly changed people’s values and inspired social wealth imagination and business will. On the one hand, facing the environment of special time and cultural atmosphere that are so different from the past, commercial novels focus on "the commercial legends in business never previously manifested", write about the era’s interests as a secret teller, and display "strengthening" and "smoothing" narrative characteristics in the historical gaps; on the other hand, by focusing on business life directed by deep value-oriented story ethics, commercial novels write about the capital mythology, interpret new commercial spirit and wealth significance, and positively express the longing for constructing a new economic order, wealth ethics and business faith. Thus, they have become a unique landscape in "the marketized literary times".The third chapter mainly probes into the cultural deduction of economic rationality in the commercial novels. In recent 20 years, commercial novels act as a polygonal prism, colorfully mirroring commercial landscapes in the progress of commercialization. However, no matter how different the styles are, they all present a kind of "economic rationality". In other words, with their diverse performances, modern themes and authentic interpretations, commercial novels issue a variety of cultural deductions and literary expressions for the principle of exchange relationship and utility maximization contained in economic rationality. In addition, commercial novels have vividly revealed the Economic Man’s cultural images, expressed their poetic ethical care, and demonstrated their vivid side by deducing contemporary economic rationality as well.The fourth chapter discusses the desire narrative in commercial novels in the individualistic evolution. The modern characteristics of commercial novels in recent 20 years are the introspection and reconstruction of individualism, and their demonstration becomes obviously an important premise for the narrative of desire. With money, power and erotic desire as the basic tone, commercial novels tell life perceptions of desire released by merchant communities in market economy, depict their life resume with which they exchange values to the greatest extent, display the conflicts between human desire and business ethics, wealth ethics, economic rationality and cultural traditions, and reveal people’s survival dilemmas as well as their mind fissions. Therefore, they present a unique writing style of desire narrative in "the literary hubbub".Based on the affirmation that commercial novels have the unique capability of grasping reality, the conclusion part analyses the discourse dilemma and aesthetic imperfections that restrict the intellectual depth, spiritual sublimation and artistic quest of commercial novels, and the disenchantment in the literary "disenchantment" will be the responsibility and mission for commercial novels to take in the future aesthetic construction.