On Compositional Components and Theoretical Methods for the History of Fiction Commentary
The reason why there hasn't been any historical writing on fiction commentary is that the research on the history of novel critique has not established its"legitimacy"in terms of historical materials,theories and methods.To solve this problem,determining the relationship between the commentaries on vernacular and classical Chinese fiction is crucial.As a cultural phenomenon,fiction commentary includes"literati culture","commercial culture"and"material culture".These domains determine the type combination,value system,and connotation composition of fiction commentary,as well as the compositional components and theoretical methods to its history.There are some of the methods and approaches which can be used in the historical writing on fiction commentary:(1)sorting and reviewing the history of various categories of fiction commentary;(2)incorporating material culture studies into the history of fiction commentary;(3)conducting the historical research of fiction from the perspective of"extensive genre"and studying the history of fiction commentary from the standpoint of western studies.