| The structure of the traditional Chinese zhanghui novel or chapter-divided novel has been seen as having an "episodic" quality because it lacks an unified plot or a central character, features more typical in Western novels. This dissertation reports the analysis of a process of continuous change in a certain direction in the Chinese novel form from the 16th-century to the modern period. The unique elements of the form of the zhanghui novel are narrative techniques carried over from Chinese historical composition and a certain kind of Buddist literature, the bianwen writing. Hence, the form of "collective biography" has been widely used by zhanghui novelists. This principle feature differentiates the zhanghui novel from the plot-constructed Western novel. Thus, the "episodic" idea is not applicable to the structural interpretation of the zhanghui novel. This dissertation consists of 5 chapters. Chapter 1, through a review of the sources of the early four masterworks of the zhanghui novel, traces the structural origins of the zhanghui novel. Chapter 2, concentrating on Shuihu zhuan, or the Men of Marshes, investigates the formation of its form and its structural principles which this earliest Chinese novel established for the development of the later zhanghui novels. Chapter 3 consists of the further investigation of the development of these structural principles of the zhanghui novel in the 17th-century novel Rulin waishi, or The Scholars. Chapter 4, through studies on late Qing novels as a transitional phenomena, seeks the new elements which appeared in the zhanghui novel form under the influence of introduced Western fiction techniques at the turn of the century. In Chapter 5, through study of Mao Dun's structural theory and his experiments in new Chinese novel form (especially Midnight), the intent is to find out how the modern Chinese novel was formed and its relation to the traditional zhanghui novel and Western fiction techniques. |
