The Study On The Reception Of Fate In Tears And Laughter

This thesis takes Zhang Henshui’s novel Fate in Tears and Laughter as the research object.From the perspective of literary reception research,it focuses on "readers" as the key point and elaborates on the acceptance effect of Fate in Tears and Laughter among common readers since its publication and the criticisms it has received among professional readers.It explores the ups and downs of the novel’s acceptance fate in the more than 90 years since its publication and attempts to use the novel’s acceptance process as a typical case to rethink the reading and criticism of modern popular literary classics.The first chapter of the thesis discusses the acceptance effect of the novel among common readers.In 1930,when Fate in Tears and Laughter was serialized in Sin Wan Pao,it caused a miraculous reading craze.With the changes of the times,this craze has cooled down in the current Internet era.During the serialization of the novel,common readers were most concerned about the romantic relationship between Shen Fengxi,Guan Xiugu,He Lina and Fan Jiashu and their final outcome.Many readers expressed their reading experience actively by writing letters to newspapers and magazines.Through the media power of newspapers and magazines,these published reader letters also showed a complex interactive relationship between editors,novelist and readers.Within a month after the serialization of the novel ended,a separate edition was published.The version changes of the novel represent its ups and downs in the reading vision of common readers.With the continuous publication of the novel,various forms of adaptations have also emerged.They not only enrich and integrate the story on the content plane,but also conserve the heat on the reading result of the original novel as long as possible.In today’s Internet reading,the reading trend of novels has completely changed from mass reading with representative and legendary colors in the 1930s to a kind of niche reading.When common readers express their reading experience in electronic reading methods,they have higher formal freedom.In terms of accepting the content,they present a reading idea that evaluates novel characters or events with modern concepts.The aesthetic differentiation within the reader group has led to an obvious mismatch between the novel and the expected vision of current readers.The second chapter of the thesis discusses the criticism of the novel among professional readers.In the 1930s,The criticism of Fate in Tears and Laughter during this period was roughly divided into two camps:the mandarin ducks and butterflies school and the new literary camp.One side focused on the novel itself and paid attention to the literary characteristics such as the plot structure.Generally speaking,they praised more than criticized.The other side denied its literary value improperly based on the novel’s ideological tendency,emphasizing its feudalism and petty-bourgeoisie as the focus of criticism.In 1955,Fate in Tears and Laughter published by Popular Literature Publishing House deleted several prefaces from the initial version of San You Book Club in 1930,added a "content summary",and made certain modifications to the content of the novel,such as deleting some sentences or adjusting some words.This version and criticism articles about the novel during this period together constituted a professional reader’s reading training for common readers with strong authority in literary system in 1950s.The significance of the novel lies in being "substitute"and a "negative example".Since the 1980s,with Zhang Henshui and Fate in Tears and Laughter entering mainstream literary history narrative for the first time,criticism interpretation around the novel has gradually unfolded,presenting a state of expanding and deepening in "justification".The third chapter of the thesis reflects on the acceptance fate of the novel.The popularity of popular novels represented by Fate in Tears and Laughter benefited from the attention of common readers.The decline of its reading trend under the development of the times also has its roots in this.Matching with the cultural psychology of common readers in the 1930s,the novel appeared in a "nostalgic and innovative" posture and became popular for a while.However,the "new" at that time has become today’s "old".The acceptance fate of the novel will inevitably turn from "hot to cold".However,compared with other popular novels that have caused phenomenal reading but have been completely forgotten by today’s readers,it still occupies a place in the reading vision of current readers.This is closely related to the lagging evolution of ideological concepts,the degree of canonization of novels,and the eternal humanistic care in novel themes.In the acceptance process of novels,the identity and aesthetic taste of common readers are like "little girls who can be dressed up".The common readers have experienced a process from being rudely defined to being elaborately explained,from being strictly trained to being widely recognized and even elevated.The relationship between professional readers and common readers has also gradually merged from division.Just as there have always been "two wings" of elegance and vulgarity in the history of literary development,the acceptance of Fate in Tears and Laughter is also composed of common readers and professional readers,reflecting the unique aspects of popular literature reading and criticism process.