The Study Of The Dream Of The Red Chamber In The English World

This thesis examines the study of a Chinese vernacular novel Honglou meng{The Dream of the Red Chamber) in the English world, focusing on three topics:growing-up, the Grand View Garden, and women, with the aim of summarizing the characteristics of the study of Honglou meng in the English world. Since the1960s, the study of Honglou meng in the English world took a new start, and became more systematic. This thesis examines the three topics in chronological order, and discovers the common trend of this study, that is, the progressively in-depth understanding, the active adoption of Western literary theories as well as theories and methods in other humanities and social science, and the increasingly obvious feature of comparative literature and interdisciplinary approaches.This thesis consists of four chapters. The first chapter looks at the topic of growing-up in the study of Honglou meng in the English world, by reviewing the writings in the1970s,1980s,1990s, and the first decade of21st centuries related to that topic. In the1970s, one scholar viewed Jia Baoyu as a character resembles the pursuer of life meaning in Western literature, and compared him with characters like Hamlet and Romeo. And another scholar adopted a kind of narrative structure based on the story of Parsifal’s searching for the Holy Cup to analyze Baoyu’s experience in the human world. In the1980s, there are writings that analyzing Honglou meng from the perspective of wisdom literature and novel of initiation. In the1990s, one paper examines the value of Honglou meng by taking it as a piece of children’s literature, and another paper discusses the reluctance to grow up in the novel. After2000, writings related to the topic of growing-up in Honglou meng take more diversified perspectives. One paper analyzes various images in Baoyu’s life related to his enlightenment, one book chapter examines Baoyu’s growth from the perspective of Buddhist enlightenment, one paper adopts spatial criticism to discuss the different kinds of space in Baoyu’s childhood life which affect his behavior. Such examination presents English scholars’increasingly diversified and in-depth approaches in the study of this topic.The second chapter examines the writings on the Grand View Garden in Honglou meng study in the English world from the1960s till present. The1960s’s study on the Garden basically followed the traditional way of fiction writing and textual criticism. Since1970s English Sinologists actively employed various Western literature theories, such as Structuralism, New Criticism, Narratology, New Marxism etc. With these approaches, the study of the Grand View Garden has been largely enriched. After2000, various approaches such as architectural aesthetics, spatial narration, and gender study are adopted, contributing to the more obvious features of comparative literature and interdisciplinary study of the novel.Chapter three focuses on the study related to women in Honglou meng. There are only limited number of writings on this topic in the1960s and1970s. C.T. Hsia and Angela Palandri both adopted psychologist theories, while Andrew Plaks and Jeanne Knoerle claimed in their books that they used structuralist and comparative approaches. From1980s, more scholars attempted to apply Feminist literary theories to the novel. The Feminist study on this novel well presents the reflective and critical features of English Sinology. There are also some scholars discussed the female figures and women’s life from the prospective of painting in Qing dynasty and women’s history in imperial China.Chapter four summarizes the characteristics, merits and shortcomings of Honglou meng study in the English world, and proposes some tentative suggestions. The study of Honglou meng in the English world has been influenced by English Sinology in general, Western literary criticism, Sino-foreign relationship, international outlook, Western academic conventions and norms. The merits of Honglou meng study in the English world include comparative literature scope and interdisciplinary approaches, self-reflective and critical evaluation. Some typical shortcomings are the mechanical application of Western theories to the novel, over-interpretation, mis-interpretation of the text and Chinese culture, lack of translations of Chinese Honglou meng study material. Considering the above situation, intensive and extensive communication and cooperation should be enhanced between China and the English world. Among all the tasks awaiting to be done, to translate and introduce more good works and papers is one of the very crucial and basic tasks. Besides, annotated bibliography of Honglou meng study will also greatly facilitate English scholar’s research work.A large percentage of English materials used in this thesis has not been introduced by Chinese scholars before. The author of this paper quoted and translated the important ideas in the English writings which are for the first time translated into Chinese. The methods adopted in this thesis are also innovative and appropriate:the choice of three topics that are both productive and able to reflect the characteristics of Honglou meng study in the English world, the analysis conducted in chronological order. Besides, the author also situates the study of Honglou meng in the context of Western Sinology and the development of Western literary theory, as well as other factors that may affect the study of Honglou meng such as the international political situations, Western academic conventions. Such examination results in the discoveries of the distinct characteristics of the study of Honglou meng and their contributing factors, and enables the author to put forward some tentative suggestions for the shortcomings of the study of Honglou meng in the English world.