Narrative Study Of Tombstone Literature

This thesis, in the light of the absurdly paradoxical phenomenon of the rapid emergence of Tombstone Literature in the modern literary circles and the rarity of comments it receives from the literary critics, adopting Chinese literary theories and Historistic approaches, aims to analyse the law of self-conscious narration underlying the characteristic narrative forms of Tombstone Literature under the dual influence of historical tradition and modern context. It also explores issues such as whether Tombstone Literature is a natural outcome of Chinese narrative tradition, whether it is possible to bridge history and reflection about reality through aesthetics in literary works, what spiritual level Tombstone Literature is supposed to reach, etc. in order to point out that the reason why Tombstone Literature is warmly received by the general readers is that it resumes the tradition of "Communion of Words and Tao" and that the reason why Tombstone Literature receives little attention from the literary critics is mainly because it is not adequate in narration, such as lack of aesthetic sense and want of higher spiritual elevation.The first chapter provides a justification of the term Tombstone Literature, before presenting the particular situation it is in:its rapid popularity among the public and the rarity of comments about it from the critics. This weird phenomenon is the starting point of this thesis on the narration of Tombstone Literature.The second chapter, according to Chinese traditional narrative theories, presents a broad analysis about the Tao in Tombstone Literature from three aspects:the invisible omnipotence of Tao through the external perspective, the morality of Tao emphasised by honest and realistic recording and the supremacy of Tao in simple and plain language, to the conclusion that the narration of Tombstone Literature is based upon the "Communion of Words and Tao". Tao’s involvement endows Tombstone Literature with high levels of seriousness and sacredness, thus its popularity among the audience. It is exactly in that sense that Tombstone Literature is the words of Tao, since it inspires the world.The third chapter tries to justify the self-consciousness of Tombstone Literature’s narration by employing the Historistic interpretation strategy in the two aspects of historical tradition and modern context. It can be seen from the historical awareness of enunciating the beginning throughout to the end in Tombstone Literature, and from a brief look-through of the history of the Word-Tao relations, that the origin of Tombstone Literature narration, Communion of Words and Tao, is rooted in the historical development. And the birth of Tombstone Literature is expedited by both the loss of literary tradition due to the dispersal of the intellectual class and the flaws in narration resulting from blind imitation of western perspectives. Therefore, Tombstone Literature is a natural outcome of the dual influence of historical tradition and modern context.The forth chapter raises expectations of the future of Tombstone Literature. As a natural outcome of Chinese narrative tradition, Tombstone Literature will bring modern literature to a new level, as well as earning itself a wider audience, if it improves its narration by utilising aesthetics to bridge history and reflection about reality and compassion to shoulder the sufferings exposed by history uopn life.