关键词: 中国叙事, 问题与方法, 模仿理论, 小说批评, 叙事技巧

Abstract: Some of the Western scholarsstudy Chinese narrative based on Chinese narrative tradition, yet most of them study Chinese narrative based on the Western narrative theory. The Western narrative theory relies chiefly on the Western narrative concepts and narrative works. It might be helpful for them to study Chinese narrative with the Western narrative theory; yet it might also be too difficult for them to cope with or to be relevant to the subject. The author of the present article intends to make a literature review of and comments on the Western scholars' studies of Chinese narrative through the following three aspects, namely, the basic conception of Chinese narrative, the critique of Chinese novels and the literary devices or techniques employed in Chinese narrative. However, due to the huge amounts of events and literatures, the author will select parts of them and give a critical review and therefore, to analyze the issues that Western scholars are concerned with and the methods they employ, expecting that this efforts can provide Chinese scholars with some references for further studies.

Key words: Chinese Narrative, problems and methods, mimetic theory, fiction criticism, narrative technique