The Principal Narrative Model Of Zhang Henshui' Romances

As the principal narrative model of Zhang Hen-shui's works, social romance embodies his artistic achievement In fact, the appeal lies not in his deep thoughts but in his skillful narrative techniques. What he major concerns is novelty rather than originality. In his novels, narrative is not a mere means to interweaving plots but itself a meaningful form full of aesthetic denotations. Compared with the narrated, narrative form and narrative technique bring much more vitality into his arts. It is just the rich artistic flavor embedded in the narrative that accounts for the very reason why his Romances transcend time and space to win favors from readers past and present.A meaningful form must be rooted in the concrete narrative. Any generalized discussion in this aspect will surely lead to the evaporation of aesthetic denotations. In the Romances of Zhang Hen-shui, I will focus on four narrative models, namely, archetypal narrative, family narrative, detective narrative and news narrative, in hopes of entering his subtle artistic world and decoding the myth of his success.