A Study On The Narration Of The Novel Ritual Since The New Period

Ritual is a kind of routine procedure and behavior mode which created and maintained by human society for a specific purpose.The basic meaning of the specific definition and expression of the ritual is that the ritual reflects the rich social behavior of human beings,such as habitual behavior,formalized behavior and behavior involving values.Ritual can not only be considered as an access to study social relations,production and life in the category of anthropology,but also be deemed as an expressive object of literary works.Ritual has long been penetrated into every aspect of human behavior,such as daily life,festival and so on.In the narration of literary works,ritual is everywhere.It could be condensed into a greeting,or presented through a bowl of rice and a cup of tea.In addition,the writer integrates the themes and features of the ceremony into the narration,and forms the ritual writing through the representation of the symbol,and creates a ritual atmosphere through the emotion molding of the characters and the grasp of the story plot.It shows that the connotation of ritual contains different meanings at different levels,and it has intertextuality with works.In the literary forms of drama,poetry and fiction,ritual is also the object of narrative expression,and the subjective active role played in the narration is ignored.Especially in the novel,the ritual process is needed to meet the logical content of the narration,and its unique connotation also makes it able to merge with the text narration in varying degrees.Examples are analyzing narrative clues from the perspective of historical memory;measuring the attribution of characters from the angle of boundary division;exploring narrative direction from the angle of conflict and transformation;explaining character behavior from the angle of performance and symbolism;thinking of folk culture from the angle of mystery and madness;revealing the contradictions in narration from the angle of coercion and rebellion.These refined ritual themes set up a ritualistic platform in the narration,making the narrative content more clear in the participation of the ritual factors.However,the text expression of these ritual themes is not all displayed in the form of ritual process,but more expressed through the symbolic description,showing a unique narrative purpose,which could be called ritual writing.Further more,the expression of ritual and ritualistic writing is the direct meaning of the text,and its intrinsic meaning needs to be more thoroughly depicted,which could help make the text spirit and value more fully expressed.It not only requires the author to treat the creation with a pious and serious attitude,but also needs the readers’ deep participation in the reading process,finally,a sense of "common sense" was formed between the author and the reader,which is the sense of ritual.What’s more,the emotional problem caused by the narration is the revelation of the writer’s feelings in the text,and the moral problem involves the writer’s sense of responsibility.By giving the reader the guidance of "truth,good and beauty",the reader could realize the sacred and solemn sense of ritual in the reading,and the value of the text can be realized at the highest level.The formation of the sense of ritual not only reflects the maturity of the author’s narrative skills,but also shows the sincerity of the author’s narrative attitude.In this way,the ritual sense can be regarded as one of the criteria for evaluating the value of literary works.In 1980 s,the study of narratology has gradually moved from classic to post-classic,which means that ritual narration should be inspired by classic and post-classic narration,and also find the characteristics of the ritual which was considered as a narrative mode.The emphasis of ritual narration lies in the stratification of narrative point,surface and body.Ritual element is the point of focus on text narrative,ritual belongs to the surface of narration,and ritual sense is to grasp the mood of writers and readers in the three-dimensional space category.Ritual and ritualistic narration also shows the inner link between the narratology and anthropology,which is an attempt to integrate the concept of narratology with the connotation of ritual.When ritual is used as a method of text narration research,especially in the analysis of realistic works,its superiority has been fully demonstrated.In the ritual view,the text is not a simple interpretation of the concept,nor a direct shift to the western literary criticism paradigm,but a profound understanding of the author’s life and a thorough understanding of the history and culture in the performance of the narrative characters,the plot and the environment.The ritual study of the text has great value,it also becomes a method that needs to be continuously excavated and deepened so as to open up a broader reading field for readers.Based on the new theoretical exploration of ritual and literary narrative relations,this paper studies the ritual narration of novels in the new era based on the Mao Dun prize winners.The introductory part describes the purpose and significance of the study,the background and current situation of the research,and the overall framework and innovation of this thesis.The first chapter puts forward that ritual is a process that develops in the time dimension,which makes it similar to narration.There is a close relationship between ritual and drama,poetry and fiction.Ritual is a kind of generalized narration,and narration is another kind of ritual.Compared with general narration,ritual narration has richer cultural connotations.The second chapter points out that the ritual narration of novels is based on three aspects,which is,the objective description of ritual elements in the ritual process,ritual writing containing ritual features,ritual feeling emerged from the emotion of the text.The three levels of ritual narration endows the novel with objective criteria for measurement and evaluation.The third chapter holds that the significance of the ritual narration is not only within the text,but also in the text.It combines the anthropological ritual theory and embodies the deep structure of the narration from six functions.In the specific practice of criticism,ritual narration is the object of Mao Dun prize winning works,which further clarifies the positive significance of ritual narration to optimize the analysis of the works.The fourth chapter explains the main narrative background of the ritual elements in The Yuan of White Deer and Hu Guang Shan Se,and shows the key role of traditional culture in the formation of characters.Ritual writing strengthens the era’s theme of the text,shows the collision between ethical order and human desire in the historical and contemporary themes.The fifth chapter traces the growth process of characters in text narration by interpreting ritual writing in The Ordinary World and The Life Book.The text shows the influence of the rural society on the growth of characters,and the ritual in the local culture just becomes an opportunity for observation and understanding.It can be seen from the ritual narration of the text that ritual is of positive significance for the enhancement of human strength and spiritual height.The sixth chapter,through the description of a large number of ethnic rituals in The Funeral of Muslims and The Right Bank of the Eergu’Na River,shows distinctive signs and imprints in the cultural background of the nation.In novels above,ethnic minorities,religious rites and folk rituals fully shows the spirit and glory of a nation.The seventh chapter,through the solemn and ceremonial writing in Jin Ou Que and The Willow in White Door,restored the heavy and vicissitudes of the historical appearance of the feudal dynasty.The sense of ritual presented in the text makes the readers feel the changing people of countries and traditional culture,reflects the heaviness of history and the influence of ritual writing on the inheritance of the Chinese civilization.Concluding remarks: ritual narration draws on the nutrient of literary theory and anthropological research methods,and is an effective synthesis of research methods.Therefore,it can take the text as a whole artistic world.The main content of the ritual narration is to reveal the ritual elements of characters’ ritual behavior,the ritual writing of the narrative plot,and the emotional function behind the text during the narrative process.These three factors construct the basic structure of the ritual writing.However,ritual writing still has limitations on the level of theoretical application.In addition to the description of the pure ritual behavior,the ritual has more extensibility.For example,in a broad sense,the narrative behavior in the text itself is a kind of ritual behavior.As a result,the narration of the novel could be regarded as the "meta ritual narrative" of the ritual behavior.Therefore,breaking the barrier of individual narrative analysis of ritual behavior is conducive to in-depth ritual narrative research.In the narrow sense of ritual narrative,through the interpretation of ritual narrative theory,this paper starts with three different levels of ritual criticism,and makes an analysis and criticism of the eight Mao Dun prize winning works.Through detailed criticism,this paper discusses the typical significance of the Mao Dun prize winning works in the stage of contemporary literary creation,as well as other classes,and also analyses the inspiration of the creation of type novels.As a way of narration,the narrative research of ritual writing is undoubtedly of more profound significance.It not only fits the cultural background and creative performance of Chinese contemporary novels,to some extent,it also gives consideration to the way of "turning inward" and "turning to the outside".More importantly,the study of ritual theory is still at an open state,which allows researchers to intervene in various ways,and this is the original intention of the author to determine the ritual as a critical method to analyze and reinterpret the Chinese contemporary novels centered on the Mao Dun prize winning works.