In search of a position: The paradox of genre typology in Late Qing polygeneric novel. Romance, political-detective, and science fiction novel, 1898-1911.

摘要

The Late Qing novel is a creative imaginary space where Late Qing writers, under the influence of native narrative modes and translated foreign novels, juxtaposed and interweaved various hybrids of the conventional narrative genres, and fused them with modern Western ideas in an effect to produce literary solutions to China's very real national crisis. This period contains a large corpus of novels about which scholars and historians have failed, so far, to acquire a conceptual vision through which they can interpret its diverse written expressions and multiple literary possibilities.;This study offers ways to reconceptualize early modern Chinese literary modernity. After excavating and re-reading mostly neglected or unknown texts from Late Qing China, I propose the ideas of "Polygeneric Novel" (zati xiaoshuo) and "Compartmentalized Subjectivity" (quhua zhutixing) to rethink the notion of subjectivity and forms of literary mediation between China and the foreign during the period between 1898 and 1911. These two concepts open up possibilities for reexamining the position of the "Late Qing" in Chinese history. They also provide perspectives to re-consider the position of Late Qing writers in a society composed of multi-faceted and conflicting cultural mores. By means of these two conceptual notions, this study asks: What is the position of Late Qing writing in Chinese literary history?;This study seeks alternative representations of Chinese history, agency, modernity, and subjectivity as reflected in the Late Qing Polygeneric Novel by analyzing and comparing the conceptual contents of the co-existing writing subjects in these texts. I conclude this study by claiming that the elite writers of the Polygeneric Novel, Late Qing was not simply a period with avowed nation building goals, but also an epoch of self-positioning, re-positioning, and suspension of positions, which often times ended, ironically, with a positionless positioning.;Materials analyzed in this study include novels, pictures, commercials, special columns, and jokes from Late Qing journals and magazines. Bibliography and analysis of journal entries are provided at the end of this study.