Language, myth, identity: The Chinese vernacular movement in a comparative perspective.

摘要

This dissertation is dedicated to a historical moment when China witnessed a drastic change in its long-established linguistic hierarchy---the moment, when baihua (which literally means "plain speech" and is also called the vernacular) rose to become the standard modern Chinese language, and wenyan (which literally means "refined language" and is called classical Chinese) was attacked and abandoned in many literary practices. By studying this linguistic drama from various perspectives, I hope to provide a comprehensive picture of the vernacular movement in early twentieth-century China.; The first half of this study discusses the May Fourth discourse on the vernacular. I argue that by adopting a "historical and progressive" approach and a "universal" model, the European Renaissance, May Fourth intellectuals successfully transformed the vernacular from a vulgar tongue into a symbol of modernity and nationality. As a result, the vernacular became a loaded image, generating all the hope and passion for utopia, while classical Chinese took on all the guilt of the past.; The second half of the study deals with literary practices, exploring what "writing (in) the vernacular" really meant to individual writers and to collective experiences at the time. Analyzing two canonical texts, "Diary of a Madman" and "Sinking," chapter three highlights the often complicated linguistic realm of May Fourth texts while commenting on the precariousness of May Fourth writers' writing experience. Chapter Four traces the ways in which the "vernacular movement" played out in the Shanghai literary scene, bringing to attention a complicated and long process of negotiation by which the vernacular moved upward and eventually became the national language.; The problem of "which language to use" and "how to write" has been a major issue for many countries in the process of becoming modern nation-states. Many countries today are still struggling with language wars. It is hoped that my study on the "triumph" of the vernacular in modern China can help shed light on stories of other countries and historical periods that witnessed similar linguistic turmoil and transition.