A Study On The Art Of Irony In Wang Luyan’s Novels

Wang Luyan is a representative of the most influential writers of local novels in Chinese modern literature. By discribing the daily scenes of the coastal villages and towns in the eastern part of Zhejiang province in a plain writing style, he creates a group of villagers who are influenced by modern industrial civilization. Though he died at only 44 years of age, he leaves a spiriture treasure of about 1.5 million words. Previous esearchers are mainly inclined to interprete his novels in local public discourse.This thesis aims to study the category and tension of irony in Wang Luyan’s novels from the perspective of art of irony.This theis consists of introduction, three chapters of the body part and conclusion.The introduction makes a brief introduction to the the current state of academic reasearches, the research significance and the concept of ironyThe first chapter explores the contributing factors of the formation of irony in Wang Luyan’s novels from the perspective of his life experiences and the influence of writers like Lu Xun on him. In terms of the internal cause, Wang Luyan had been living a life in displacement for a long time. He experieced the dark social life and wanted to change lifeby himself. However, due to the weakness of the petty bourgeoisie intellectuals, he did not succeed in finding his way out for life, which always made him fall into contradictions and depressions. In terms of the external cause, Wang Luyan became talented through self-study. During the process of his growing into a man of letters, he had been influenced successively by writers like Lu Xun, Sienkiewicz, Sholom Alechem. Wang Luyan actively learned the technique of irony often used by these writers. Under the combined effect of the internal and external causes, the phenomenon of irony shows its glamour.Chapter two examines the categories of irony in the text of Wang Luyan’s novels. This chapter takes the study method of close reading of the texts, making detailed clarification and analysis of irony in his novels. This part makes respective discussions on verbal irony in malposition, situational irony in paradox, structural irony in deviation and position of irony in opposition.Chapter three makes analysis on the tension produced by irony in Wang Luyan’s novels. Verbal irony, situational irony, structural irony and position of irony abound in his novels, which shows that there are opposite factors in them. These factors interact with each other, forming narrative tension of the novels. In his novels, scenarized realistic description and visional description of dreams produce balanced plot tension; the contradiction between "single" character and "numerous" characters form the tension among characters; the inexorability on the level of narraton and enthusiasm in the author’s inner mind produce opposite conflicts, froming the emitional tension.The concluding part looks back on the main viewpoints in the thesis. By making a comparison to the irony in writings of Lu Xun, Zhang Ailing, Xiao Hong and Qian Zhongshu, it proves that irony in Wang Luyan’s novels is characterized by both inexorability and tenderness which forms an unique style.