From Memoir to Narration：Transformation of Novels in Late-Qing

Chinese novels usually have a narrator which is described a virtual storyteller who knows everything about the story and keep showing his authority to virtual audiences. However, at the dawn of the 20th century, authors start trying to write novels without an arrogant storyteller. Narrators of novels were not nacessarily an arrogant storyteller but a narrator who hide himself and let character show the whole story for readers without any discussion from narrator. Analysising how those storyteller gone would be a main idea approach toward study Late-Qing novels, and the progress of the novels transformation in the Early 20th century Authors in Late-Qing were so eager to make whole society better that they tried to record social events in their novels. Therefore some novels are wrote like memoirs. On the other hand, in the absent of storytellers, the novels wrote like memoirs always have a traveler, like “ Lao Can”(老殘)of The Travels of Lao Can(老殘遊記). Through recording the travel, author show their mind in the travelers in novels.That’s why novel were no longer a genre merely told story but could discuss social events and express personal emotions. My dissertation studies on the narration of novels in Late-Qing, and mainly focus on the narrator’s authority. In the absent of storytellers, characters show their action and feel to readers directely. Trational novels are always stories with complicated plot and a noisy storyteller. However novels in the 20th century became much diverse in narrating.