英文摘要 |
Jinghua Yuan (Flowers in the Mirror) is arepresentative of the literati’s novel during the Qing dynasty. Its author Li Ruzhen (1763-1830) bears the attitude of“literature made for play”to blend all kinds of rhetoric techniques of Chinese character into the occasions such as drinking games, couplets, puzzles and jokes, along with the arrangement of the plot or the change of character’s form, or the imitation of character’s sound, or the misreading of its meaning. By so doing, it creates afunny and humorous reading for the reader. The fun of“literature made for play”comes from the notion of“abnormal normality”. The case of Li's re-analysis and transformation of the Chinese character rule (such as its form, sound, and meaning) can be regarded as“abnormal”. However, the deconstruction of the form, sound and meaning of the Chinese character is not arbitrary or unrestrained. Instead, it must be skillfully adapted to the plot of the novel, and be in accord with the possible structure and combination relationship of the Chinese character. This case above can be regarded as“normality”. Hence, through the word games that make readers wander between“abnormal”and“normality”, one can experience the pleasure of incongruity and resolution, from which the reading fun emerges. Jinghua Yuan is used in this project, which adopts theory and methods from rhetoric, and which observes how Li employed the Chinese rhetoric of“abnormal normality”to blend avariety of word games into the plot of the novel in order to shape the characterization of the novel and then pushed forwards the narration. The researcher hopes that this project can interpret the Chinese character rhetoric and its aesthetic effects of Jinghua Yuan on the one hand, and that we can understand how the mutual dialogue between author and reader is built through the word games on the other. |