A Narrative Study Of Mai Jia’s Spy War Movies And Teleplays

As a writer, Mai Jia’s novels has fluent language, unique content among which Plot was awarded the Seventh Mao Dun Literature Prize. Mai Jia’s spy war novels have outstanding characteristics, the elements, including genius deciphering password, reasoning of seeking spy, presentation of anecdotes and fascinating intelligence game, integrating in the historical stories of wars, solemnly and profoundly, romantically and cruelly. In the new-century boom of spy war movies and teleplays, Mai Jia’s works are adapted for movies and teleplays in succession. Mai Jia is a prominent representative among writers of spy war movies and teleplays, for the typicality in success of box office and reputation about his works. His major spy war novels except Decoded are adapted for screen:four TV plays including Plot, Legends of the Message, Wind Whisperer, Dao Jian Shang Xing Zou(Walking on a Knife-edge); movies The Silent War, The Message.This thesis takes the narrative of Mai Jia’s Movie and teleplay as research object, and texts of his works as a whole, from the perspective of adaptation, further to illustrate the characteristics and values of the adaptation of his literary works as well as point out the deficiency and flaw of his texts. The introduction of this thesis is outlined from the aspects of significance of the subject, concept definition and text selection, laying a foundation of later interpretation.The first chapter applies space theory to discuss the space characteristic aesthetic of narrative, illustrating multiple spatial dimension and abundant image connation in his movie and teleplay texts. This thesis places Mai Jia in the boom of spy war movies and teleplays and states the uniqueness of building narrative space in Mai Jia’s spy war movies and teleplays, from the following aspects to display:chamber, password and props, war imaging and identity, and camera technology.The second chapter gives an illustration of narrative characteristics about spy war movie and teleplay from the angle of narrative strategy. The story constructing strategies, including emotional elements and characters’disposition in his works’texts participating narrative, narrative technique of setting up layers of suspense, excavating deep theme, adroit use of plot mutations and reverses, description of intelligence elements and binary opposition model as well as vivid characterization, stimulate audience’s desire of watching and appreciating and arouse audience’s interest. All of these strategies, evidently, are elaborately arranged and designed by director, effectively directing to audience as well as creatively reflecting narrative law. Spy war movies and teleplays form certain programs and specifications in narrative strategies. As the representative, Mai Jia’s spy war movies and teleplays embody these programs and specifications, to some extent, beyond these.The third chapter reveals the deficiencies and flaws of narrative texts. From the four aspects, respectively adaptations’vulgarization and gendered patterns, roughness and homogeneity of play, fuzzification of themes, and mediocrity of narrative, it explores the causes of these deficiencies and flaws. This thesis contains traditional textual studies as well as examines and thinks Mai Jia’s movies and teleplays in the scope of ideology and consumer market, and is based on the theory of narratology as well as touched upon the subjects of reception aesthetics and psychology. This thesis provides significant enlightenment for adaptation of excellent literary works to genre film and genre TV plays and reference for narrative of movie and teleplay.