On Modern Novels of the May 4th Period

Though the modern novels of the May 4th Period were closely related with the novels of the late Qing Dynasty, they fulfilled their preliminary transformation from traditional to modern with the influence of the idea of literature. The foregrounding of human literature enabled the modern novels of the May Fourth Period to probe into the world and depict human life with a wide artistic point of view. The struggle in the face of fate and established order depicted in these novels corresponds with the which is characteristic of the May Fourth Literature. The portrayal of complex characters with individuation, the analysis of dual personality, especially the criticism of the tragedy caused by innate defects of people, the stylistic awareness as a result of the effort to achieve the narrative diversity and the deepening of narrative subjectivity, all these singled them out from the old literature and this marks the beginning of modern Chinese novels.