The Poetics of Chinese Narrative: An Analysis of Andrew Plaks' Archetype and Allegory in the 'Dream of the Red Chamber7

Abstract

It has been a decade since Cyril Birch paid tribute to Andrew Plaks for his pioneer efforts in constructing a theory of Chinese narrative. Taking as his point of departure the central thesis presented in Archetype and Allegory in the 'Dream of the Red Chamber' (1976), Plaks pursued the same arguments about the patterns of Chinese narrative structure in his coneluding article in the symposium volume on Chinese narrative theory he edited a year later. The publication of both the book and the anthology were important events in Chinese literature, as they promised to bring together the Chinese narrative tradition and Western narrative theories by means of comparât ive^ theory. Given the scope of Plaks' theoretical framework and the vigor of his critique, one could easily speculate that his poineer study would serve as a harbinger of an increasingly large corpus of essays testing the soundness of his assumptions and continuing the discussions of Chinese narrative structure. It is somewhat disappointing, therefore, that his works have not been duly appraised since their publications.