Title:
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Chinese intellectuals as represented in fictional dialogues 1980 to 2005
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This thesis explores the status of Chinese intellectuals from 1980 to 2005 and its
diachronic change in this period as represented by dialogues between intellectuals and
their leaders in fiction. June 1989 functions as a historical dividing line on which to
base this diachronic study. In order to carry out the study, firstly, the direct speech of
intellectuals and their leaders is extracted and compiled into corpora for a key
key-words analysis. Secondly, a stylistic analysis is undertaken with the aim of
conducting a more detailed qualitative investigation of the dialogues. Three dialogues
in each of the two periods are selected for the stylistic analysis.
The key key-words derived describe features of the speech of intellectuals, the speech
of intellectuals as compared to the speech of leaders, and the speech of leaders as
compared to that of intellectuals. The study shows that the key key-words indicating
topics of the speech and the key key-words characterising the style of the speech
represent the social identity of intellectuals. A comparison of these key key-words
between the two periods uncovers the diachronic change in the status of intellectuals.
The corpus approach is complemented by a stylistic analysis, which explores
dialogues selected from different years to emphasise the diachronic change. A dual
model is formulated to incorporate dialogue analysis into a larger structure of goal
development analysis. The study shows how speakers use discursive strategies to
manage relationships and have their situational goals achieved in interaction.
Negotiation of goals invokes the institutional and social identities of speakers,
bringing out their status.
The research shows that the corpus. approach and the stylistic analysis can be
combined to present a more comprehensive description of data. Hopefully it sheds
some light on studies of post-Cultural Revolution Chinese intellectuals and on how
quantitative and qualitative approaches merge in the investigation of interaction
between superiors and subordinates.
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