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Interactive canvas : a new conception of the female portraits in three novellas by Su Tong

University of British Columbia

This study consists of an analysis of the major female characters in Su Tong's three novellas: "Wives and Concubines," "Embroidery," and "Lives of Women." Beginning with a brief introduction to the progress of Chinese literature to the emergence of the avant-garde to which Su Tong belongs, an introduction to Su Tong and his three novellas follows. The analysis of the novellas focuses on the character portraits painted by Su Tong that depict the twelve female characters' fates, characters and thoughts. Su Tong's artistic style and elements such as symbolism, imagery, the yin principle and magic realism are analysed in detail. I subjected my study to a traditional formal analysis as articulated by Norman Friedman in Form and Meaning in Fiction, then examined the novellas in light of David Der-wei Wang's evaluations of Chinese contemporary literature from Running Wild: New Chinese Writers. When the results of both analyses were compared, then combined with Wayne C. Booth's The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction, the resulting impasse evolved into common ground. I propose that each reader, in the 'trying on' of alternatives discovered in narratives, makes personally meaningful interpretations that are relevant to his/her own particular life situation. Literature is still meamngful for the reader, but the source of the meaning or messages that the reader finds in literary works derives from the reader in an interaction with the characters and implied author of the narrative that engages him/her.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-09-14

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/12745

Asian Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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