The Poetics Of Fiction In Ulysses: Theory And Practice

This dissertation is an attempt at a confluent as well holistic standpoint to thepoetics of fiction in Ulysses with Chinese and western poetics as research contexts. Asa literary concept, poetics of fiction refers to an aesthetic strategy concerning novelwriting styles and narrative forms or a reception-based approach. Actually “poetics offiction” has been the subject of a lot of research in both China and abroad for decades.Previous studies of poetics on art forms pertain to prosification of text structures,fictionalization of characters as well as ideologicalization of aesthetic situations. Withan analysis of the poetics of fiction in Ulysses, this research aims to overcomemisunderstanding of the future of novels due to traditional conservative literary viewsand to predict the future of the genre. On the one hand, this dissertation disclosesorigins, contents and values of the poetics of fiction in Ulysses in terms of its nature,stance, aesthetic notions, artistic forms and literary state in order to clarify the gist ofpoetics of fiction. On the other hand, it reveals that “novel”, this literary genre, is anartistic form and criticism in essence by going beyond rational cognition and realisticboundedness. The gist affirms that the poetics of fiction in Ulysses is a synthesis offictional arts and literary theories by nature, and any separation between the two mayresult in a certain impasse.Note that the research is featured by its “poetics of fiction” perspective.Therefore, the study differs from the previous ones with an aim to investigate thepoetics features and values by probing into “theory and practice” of Ulysses. That isto say, this study is concerned with integration of novel arts and poetics. Though it hasbeen widely acknowledged that the poetics natures in the novel facilitate a specialreading experience, the following questions remain largely unexplored: How ispoetics exhibited in the novel? How is poetics embodied in components of the literarywork? And why is poetics so remarkable in the novel writing? All these questionspertain to organization issues in novel creation and comparatively few studies to dateever tackle them in a single framework. This research, nevertheless, addresses thequestions by taking an overall view over construction of the poetics of fiction in Ulysses in terms of both theory and practice of this Irish national allegory.This dissertation consists of five parts. Chapter one is a leading-in sketch, whichincludes both critical review and research questions. This part reviews academicresearches on Ulysses both at home and abroad with an aim to gain a clear idea of thecurrent margins. Chapter two is devoted to the novel notions in Ulysses. It focuses onmode of conception, form of manifestation, and realm of art in this novelistic text andanalyzes the emotions and thoughts involved in this literary work. Chapter threediscusses the poetics strategies employed in Ulysses, and accounts for the poeticspursuits in the specific case, including influence of meditation on existence, disputeover aesthetics and inspiration over life. Chapter four exhibits an integration of novelarts and poetics in Ulysses. This part deals with the topics in this dissertation step bystep. Chapter five is the conclusion, which summarizes artistic meditation, ideologicalsystem as well as formation process of the poetics of fiction in the classic from boththeoretical and practical perspectives. And thus it displays inheritance, rebellion andopenness of the systematic literary theory. In a word, the present dissertation providesan overview of theory and practice out of the poetics of fiction by summarizingartistic ideology, text structure, historical implication, aesthetic existence and literaryspirit of this idea in Ulysses. This research also pivots around the following questions:What is fiction? What is the writing purpose of fiction? What is the future of fiction?Meanwhile, it reveals aesthetic dilemma encountered by fiction, the pioneeringcontemporary literary mission as well as possible cultural opportunities.In sum, the research takes Ulysses as an example and analyzes its poetics offiction in the text from both theoretical and practical perspectives. One contribution ofthe current study is that it critically reviews the existing poetics theories. Generallyspeaking, the style and structure creation in Ulysses suggests not only innovations innovel writing techniques but also a change of function and nature of the genre. Ananalysis of the literary work also indicates that fiction should overcome biased andconfined rationality of human beings and adopt “life essence” as its priority. And thisis the only approach to create a real life with emotions and to promote an integrationof art appreciations and poetics theories. Under the poetics influence of Ulysses, fiction is expected to head for dialogues and diversity in the future, which may alsoimply a decline of despotism and a development of polyphonic spirit. In short, fictionwould show great potentiality in the real inner world. Yet it should also be admittedthat this dissertation is nothing but a tentative attempt in the field and more studies areneeded to explore poetics of other literary genres, such as poetics of drama, poetics ofpoetry and poetics of prose.