The close reading method of "new criticism" is not an impressionistic criticism of egoism, but a "careful interpretation", which is a critical way to analyze and explain works in detail. In this kind of criticism, the critic seems to be reading every word with a magnifying glass, capturing hints, hints and associations in literary words and phrases. The operation process is roughly divided into the following three steps: first, understand the meaning, then understand the context, and finally grasp the rhetorical characteristics.
Up to now, many people in China still regard the critical theory of "close reading" as the originality of western literary theory, and often use it to interpret various literary texts. In fact, the earliest and most common discourse analysis method in China's ancient literary criticism-the text analysis method of words, images and meanings-is the earliest critical theory of "close reading". The similarity between Chinese and western close reading criticism lies in that they both try to grasp a certain aspect of the text through the shell of language, such as paying attention to the composition of words, words and sentences in language; The rhythm and rhythm of sound; Detailed analysis of rhetorical devices such as metaphor and symbol. "Yan" is equivalent to the analysis of the tone and meaning unit of literary texts by western "close reading" criticism; "Image" is equivalent to the image and metaphor of the text in the western "close reading" criticism; Read and analyze symbols and symbol systems carefully. "Meaning" is the common pursuit of Chinese and western "close reading" criticism. However, in the deep understanding of "meaning", Chinese close reading criticism advocates that all the contents related to the text should be included in the exploration of "meaning", such as the three-dimensional analysis of style, work style, current affairs, geography and customs. From the point of view of close reading, Chinese-style close reading criticism is more refined and richer than British and American close reading criticism, even surpassing British and American close reading criticism, and it is close reading in close reading. Narration is an important part of human social activities. Narratology discusses the narrative means of artistic expression: how a story is organized through narration and becomes a unified plot structure. The emergence of "narratology" theory is closely related to Russian formalism, Saussure linguistics, structuralism, deconstruction and other 20th century literary and cultural theories. It is also the most concrete and practical. Under its observation, the stories, plots, authors, readers, perspectives and comments that we think we are familiar with have new meanings. Some used concepts have even been subverted and some new concepts are coming. This is not very profound but quite interesting knowledge; A set of tools, not very complicated, but quite sharp. It will provide you with a new critical perspective; Open up a new research world.
The analytical methods of "narratology" mainly include story analysis (including story order analysis, story type analysis, etc. ) and narrative perspective analysis (including the narrator's person, position and credibility; The narrator's voice, narrative speed, etc. Specifically, it includes four aspects:
First, narrative narratology. Andrew H. Plaks said in China Narratology: "Narration means that the author conveys the essence and significance of life experience to others by telling stories." At the same time, it defines what "narrative text" is-"it is a literary style or type that can convey life experience in time flow with a large unit capacity". Dong Xiaoying described in Narratology: "Narratology is the study of how to make stories fascinating and beautiful." "Narratology is a discipline that studies narrative methods through narrative forms."
Second, the narrative subject-voice. Who said, that is, "who is the narrator" is very important in the narrative effect and the expression of text meaning, including "narrative angle" (narrator, interviewee, person, perspective,) and "narrative attitude" (narrator's voice, narrator's intervention and focus).
Third, the narrative mode-language style. The relationship between events and discourse is to discuss when narrative unfolds. This includes "narrative amplitude" (time amplitude and space amplitude) and "narrative frequency" (event frequency and narrative frequency).
Fourth, the description process-the structure of the article (narrative clues, plot arrangement, discourse order) and the stylistic structure (stylistic infiltration).
Analyzing narrative perspective, narrative attitude and narrative structure can help us to open the magnificent and strange inner universe of literary works, understand the inner structure of the text, and make us interested in the text itself, instead of just paying attention to the social and historical content carried by the text, so that our reading teaching can return to the text itself and make Chinese reading teaching more complete. Taking Medicine and Blessing as examples, this paper makes a brief quantitative analysis of the two narrative symbols in Lu Xun's novels.
1, color symbol-main color and proportion in medicine and blessing
There are 28 colors in the medical text, including "red" for 6 times, "white" 12 times, "black" for 8 times, "blue" 1 time and "green" 1 time. You can see that its main color is red, white and black.
"Red, white and black" has a very rich and profound connotation. Three colors appear at the same time, and its visual effect is meaningful.
"Black" often appears in articles with indisputable weight: the sky is "the second half of autumn" and the street is "darkness", and the two are combined into a dark and depressing three-dimensional space. The executioner was all black, and the cooked steamed bread was all black ... from the whole space to the concrete things, it was heavy and terrible, suggesting the severe and terrible social environment and the tyranny of evil forces at that time.
In the article, red has the "dark red edge" of soldiers' clothes (this kind of red makes people feel depressed); There are "bright red human blood steamed buns" (this red color gives people a shocking feeling); There is a "red and white flower" on the top of the grave (this red color means that although the light of hope is weak, there is still a little hope) ... The meaning of "red" is different: it shows that "society" and "revolution" at that time contained too many complicated connotations.
As for the "white" and "gray" road, the "pale" face, and the smell of "white" in the burnt steamed bread, it is neither a representative of "red" nor an ally of "black", symbolizing the middle forces in society, with a strong sense of desolation and confusion.
The comprehensive function of the three colors shows the gloomy, complicated and "evil" and "ghostly" social environment at that time.
There are about 22 descriptions of colors in Blessing, including white (including moonlight and gray) 9 times, black (including gray-black, black-yellow and cyan) 7 times and yellow 4 times. The main colors are white, black and yellow, and occasionally blue and red are mixed in.
Unlike Medicine, which takes black as the main color, Blessing takes white as the main color: the sky embracing everything is "gray", white snow flowers are flying under the sky, the houses are white ripples, the characters under the eaves are gray hair, and the characters are wearing moonlight vests. Compared with the oppression and cruelty in the medical darkness, Fubao is dirtier and more cruel in social life. In microscopic color design, the colors in Blessing are mostly intermediate colors: not only white is mostly moonlight and gray, but black is mostly gray and yellow, which is full of doubts and confusion. Yellow is the third color in the blessing. "Yellow Light" renders the turbid human society, and the yellow cheeks outline the individuals living in misery. The red color in Blessing is only twice, once when washing the arm of a woman soaked in water during the blessing ceremony, and once when it first appeared on the cheek of Sister Xianglin in Luzhen. They exist sporadically, instantaneously and climatically. The novel uses white, black and yellow to form a complete picture of human society, and also clearly expresses the author's evaluation and criticism of this society.