A Study on the Character Shape of Mythical Heroes in Modern Chinese Novels: Focusing on Maodun’s 『The Twilight』

Abstract

This paper presupposes『 The Twilight: The Romance of China in 1930』 as a myth, and examines how an individual named Wu Sun-fu, a writer Maodun, and Chinese society proceeded with the process of exploration to perform tasks, and as a result, what alternatives were to China’s future. In particular, Wu Sun-fu suggests a kind of clarity and inevitability in that he gives up being a hero and decides to enter a new stage, while the heroic figure commonly borrowed by May 4th modern writers usually enlighten the people in a superior position and does not hesitate to sacrifice himself, finally it ends up being tragic. First of all, Chapter 2 examines the transition of Maodun’s creative consciousness and the process of the birth of a hero named Wu Sun-fu. In Chapter 3, we will analyze Wu Sun-fu's heroism, the process of becoming no longer a hero, and the process of creating a labor class as a new hero in conjunction with Northrop Frye’s mythological criticism theory. At this time, economic vocabulary such as national capital, sales capitalism, and labor class implies important concepts to analyze the downfall of heroes and the birth process of new heroes. In other words, the heroic figure who advocated the pursuit of ideal personality and the modification of national character in the May 4th period will collapse, and now, in order to transform society, the physical foundation of society must be changed around “economy and life.” The labor class presented as the subject is a new hero of the new society, and Maodun also hinted at the appearance of this character at the same time as the fall of Wu Sun-fu in the work. In the period of mayhem and transition, Maodun presents the future of China through the replacement of these figures in『 The Twilight: The Romance of China in 1930』, and speaks of the justification that this is an inevitable result.