Boat:A Narrative Space In The Vernacular Novels Of The Ming And Qing Dynasties

This thesis takes the "Space of the Boat" in vernacular novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties as the main research object,and uses methods such as literature collection,text reading,mutual verification of literature and history as well as modern narrative research to analyze the spatial narrative function and narrative significance of the “Boat”——a kind of common space in the text.On the basis of restoring the historical truth and literary tradition of the "Space of the Boat",this thesis explores its implementation in narrative texts,especially the specific forms combined with various narrative structures and components,and further discusses the spatial and temporal relationships,character shaping,plot construction,and other aspects of the boat boat narrative,in order to explore the general rules of understanding and presenting the " Space of the Boat " in Ming and Qing vernacular novels.This thesis mainly consists of six parts:The introduction section provides a review of the history and current status of relevant research,focusing on the thematic achievements of spatial narratology and boat narrative,in order to clarify the significance and research direction of this topic.At the same time,this section introduces the research ideas and methods of this thesis.The first part restores ancient Chinese ships from two aspects: the first section focuses on the historical reality of ships,outlines the historical evolution of ancient Chinese ships,with a focus on their shape and purpose,and clarifies the specific structure of ships,with a focus on their internal and external spatial structures,thus providing a prerequisite for the textual presentation of the study of "ship" space.The second section enters the textual level from a practical perspective,and then explores the cultural connotations contained in the boat space,as well as the process of text discovery in this space,laying the foundation for subsequent narrative research on the boat space in Ming and Qing vernacular novels.The second part uses narrative texts from the Ming and Qing dynasties as materials to explore the textual features of the boat space.It is divided into two sections: The first section carefully studies relevant novel texts,categorizes and summarizes common boat types in vernacular novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties based on plot orientation,summarizes their textual presentation patterns,summarizes their artistic features,and emphasizes that "blank space" is a prominent feature of the boat space presentation.The second section elaborates on the relationship between focus and the presentation of the boat,discusses the characteristics of three types of focus methods: internal focus,external focus,and non focus,and the selection of different focus methods when presenting the boat space.It also analyzes and explains the flow problem between perspectives.The third part focuses on the temporal and spatial attributes of boats,which are divided into two sections.The first section explores the symbolic role of boats as textual space in the flow of time.In the time clues of character actions,narrators of Ming and Qing vernacular novels often use boats as specific time nodes.At the same time,the spatial transfer brought about by boats also played a crucial role in advancing the narrative.The second section first focuses on the key factors that affect the boat movement,namely,the Mobile agent.The difference of Mobile agent in function,identity,motivation,etc.directly determines the direction and track of the boat’s movement;Subsequently,attention is paid to the reference objects in the boat narrative,emphasizing the establishment of the movement trajectory in the boat narrative,relying on the narrator’s selection and expression of the reference objects.Furthermore,the movement of boats is often not described or explained,but rather restored by several reference objects;Finally,analyze the characteristic path of ’journey’.Although boats have various functions in historical reality,in narrative texts,the space of boats is always closely linked to the "travel" behavior of characters,involving various characters and generating various plots based on the spatiotemporal clues of the "journey".While expressing the characters and organizing the plot,how the narrator expresses the space of boats reflects the narrative strategy of the author of vernacular novels.The fourth part is based on narrative theory and discusses from two basic directions:character and plot.The first section uses spatial representation to study the overall image of the boat,as well as the hints and shaping of the character’s personality and image by local space.The second section examines the significance of boats in organizing narrative structures and constructing plot patterns,and explores their role in connecting and carrying events in linear and juxtaposed narratives.Finally,specialized research and discussion will be conducted on the criminal plot patterns and capsizing plot patterns derived from the ship space.The conclusion section summarizes and concludes the entire text.Consider the boat space as a case study,explore the possibility of in-depth research in relevant aspects,and analyze the research direction and methods.