Romanzo ed educazione alla storia. Scritti sul romanzo storico nel quinquennio 1902-1906

In the early years of the twentieth century the discourse on the nature and role of xiaoshuo in Chinese literary system was partly characterized by the need to elaborate detailed narrative taxonomies comparable to those adopted in the West and in Japan. Among the categories that entered the new lexicon figures that of «historical novel» (lishi xiaoshuo), a new critical idiom used to designate forms of fictional narratives based on historical facts. The analysis of different uses of this category label in commercial and critical writings from the period between 1902 and 1906 reveals how much the definition of this narrative subgenre was still interwoven with the traditional historiographical paradigm, both in terms of narrative theme and sociological function. As a consequence, historical fiction was mainly valued for its role in popularizing historical literacy. At the same time, however, the new cultural role assigned to fiction allowed the gradual emergence of the reciprocal functionality of history and fiction, particularly in the writings of Wu Jianren (1866-1910).