The Problem of the Narrator in Chinese Narratology: The Evolution of Narrative Perspective in Chinese Literature

The subject of this research is the category of narrator within the framework of Chinese narratological theory and practice. The object of the research is the genesis and tradition of narrative perspective in classical Chinese prose (origins in historiography and development in the novel), as well as its radical transformation in modern fiction of the early 20th century (based on the works of writers of the "May Fourth" period). Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the views of Chinese scholars (Dong Naibin, Tan Junqiang, Fu Xiuyan, Hu Yamin, Zhao Yiheng, Chen Pingyuan and Yang Yi) on the specifics of Chinese narrative art. This study is the first to introduce the research of the aforementioned Chinese scholars into Russian academic discourse. Its results can be applied in historical and comparative narratology for the study of narrative perspective. The key method employed is the comparative-historical approach, which allows for tracing the evolution of narrative perspective and comparing it with the Western tradition. The conducted research revealed that the evolution of narrative perspective in Chinese literature follows a global trajectory — from omniscience to a limited point of view, where first-person narration played a key role in the era of the discovery of the individual. However, in classical prose, omniscient third-person narration prevailed, rooted in the historiographical tradition. Even the occasionally used first-person narration did not signify genuine subjectivity: such a narrator typically remained detached and omniscient. First-person narration with a truly limited, subjective point of view of a narrator-protagonist was established only at the beginning of the 20th century but soon gave way to a third-person form in its new modification. The results of the study showed why the terms "perspective" and "point of view" are relevant in the Chinese narratological tradition, while the categories of "first/third person" are less significant than in Western theory.