Author ｜
Liu Bo-zheng
Abstract ｜
Researchers have been discussing New Made Stories, the last volume of collected short stories of Lu Xun, focusing on the category of stylistique. This paper views the conception of novelette illuminated in A Brief History of Chinese Fiction《中國小說史略》 as the origin and development of Lu Xun’s novel writing. On this premise, we look into how Old Tales Retold《故事新編》 , which Lu himself saw as a work of “Yanyi” (演義), delineates the meaning out of itself under his conception of novelette and history by deploying its narrating tactic.To begin with, this paper identifies possible historical consciousness of Lu Xun by observing his attitude toward Chinese history, and how he deformed and molded Chinese traditional conception of history and then infused it with his own individual consciousness and memories, for and against history. Following it is that this paper centers on analyzing how he presented the historical consciousness in the novel. By studying the compiling style and titles of Old Tales Retold, we further dredge how the novel convey sits aspect of history when facing the conception of time, and whether those characters in the novel, as actors in the flow of time, link to Lu Xun’s personal life and hence depict the historical consciousness Lu Xun attempted to reveal.
keywords ｜
Lu Xun, Old Tales, Retold historical consciousness, narrating strategy