钱锺书《围城》的互文性解读

Abstract

Qian Zhongshu (1910-1998) ranks among the foremost twentieth-century Chinese literary scholars and writers, known for his burning wit and formidable erudition. His satiric novel Fortress Besieged围城seeks to form a new relationship between literature and society by examining a form of the existence of the intelligentsia living in the period of the War of Resistance Against Japan. This paper is based on a re-reading of the writings of Qian Zhongshu in order to improve our understanding of Qian Zhongshu’s thought structures and the unique role Qian played in both the fields of Modern Chinese literature and academia. This paper aims to systematically research how Qian Zhongshu consciously employed such thought in those areas. So as to gain a closer reading of Qian Zhongshu, as Qian’s identity was based in literature, I have therefore chosen as my point of departure the novella Fortress Besieged; a work that displays different literary forms, from “metaphor” to “allusion”. Here an investigation into how Qian employs such literary forms from the points of view of both literature and academia using so-called “intertextuality” shall be further discussed and Qian Zhongshu’s individual mode of thought shall be demonstrated. A close reading of Fortress Besieged allows for many different points of analytical departure, as Qian Zhongshu’s work contains many instances of struggle between lively literature and fundamental academic debate. It is the conclusion of this paper that herein lays the value of Fortress Besieged.