Overview of the art of Mo Yan’s novels

The artistic overview of Mo Yan's novels

——Taking "Red Sorghum" and "Sandalwood Punishment" as examples

Mo Yan's hometown is Gaomi County, Shandong, where he lives for more than twenty years. Since the concept of "Northeast Gaomi Township" first appeared in the novel "White Dog Swing", he has created a series of novels with "Northeast Gaomi Township" as the background, including the novella "Red Sorghum" and the novel "Sandalwood Punishment" has the greatest influence and the highest ideological and artistic achievements. These two novels peek, show and examine the cultural and psychological world of our nation from the retrospective of the past tense. The characters in the novel are both righteous and evil, officials and gangsters, noble and vulgar, have distinct loves and hates, and dare to act, which fully demonstrates the richness and complexity of folk characters. Chen Sihe described the folk in Mo Yan's works as "harboring filth and evil". In terms of art, Mo Yan's weird and changeable style and cold, rough, exquisite and gorgeous descriptions give people a refreshing sense of strangeness and surprise, and give people the shocking beauty of tragedy.

The new realm of folk expression

Folk is a rich and complex concept. In this article, folk mainly refers to local folk. The folk expressions of Chinese writers in the 20th century have generally gone through such a development process: Lu Xun’s criticism, enlightenment and reflection in the early 20th century; the praise and return of Beijing-style literati such as Shen Congwen; the sentimentality and care of Northeastern writers such as Xiao Hong; and Zhao Shuli’s work in the mid-20th century. The description and presentation of the popularization of folk, the examination, interpretation and reconstruction of critical themes by writers in the new era. Among them, Mo Yan has made fruitful efforts and explorations in opening up the depth and breadth of folk expression.

In a conversation with Oe Kenzaburo titled "Looking for the Hometown of "Red Sorghum"", Mo Yan claimed: "I think my 'Northeast Gaomi Township' should be an open concept, not A closed concept; it should be a literary concept, not a geographical concept. "Mo Yan's novels construct a rural world full of vitality and wildness-Gaomi Northeast Township, and use it to express and criticize the folk aesthetics. The essence and original meaning of life. After Lu Xun, Shen Congwen is undoubtedly the master of folk expression. The "Xiangxi World" he writes about is full of human beauty and human feelings, and contains the poetic development of a sound and harmonious realm in human life that is different from modern civilization. "The world of Xiangxi" refers to poetry and painting in folk expressions. The world of Xiangxi with a "pastoral" sentiment is different from the local literary tradition formed since the "May 4th Movement" that expresses oppression and injustice, or criticizes ignorance and backwardness, and excavates the national spiritual trauma. are completely different. It uses the literary picture composed of "dream" and "truth" to contrast it with real life, and guide people to understand "the greatness of this nation in the past and its current depravity" through comparison. This is Shen Congwen's unique contribution to new literature.

The author believes that Shen Congwen and Mo Yan respectively used the two geographical/cultural concepts of "Western Hunan World" and "Northeast Gaomi Township" to re-examine the culture, psychology, life and spirit of our nation. Recognize and reconstruct. In terms of purpose, they have the same side; in terms of artistic expression, they are very different and even completely opposite. In terms of the choice of subject matter, Shen Congwen did not want to write stories such as "a pool of blood and tears", but preferred to express pain and sorrow with a smile, downplay the plot, and have a fresh and distant style. Mo Yan's "Red Sorghum" and "Sandalwood Punishment" are full of violence and bloodshed. They are shocking tragedies written in a bold and strong style, with exaggerated language and full of imagination.

The artistic styles of Shen Congwen and Mo Yan can be summarized in a set of words: Pastoral/Cat Tune.

"Mao Qiang" is a very distinctive local opera in Northeast Gaomi Township written in "Sanxiang Puning". The singing style is strange, solemn and humorous, with a mixture of sadness and joy, and impassioned speeches, including folk sentiments. Raw energy and passion.

Mo Yan's novels fully demonstrate the subversion of traditional aesthetic methods, expression modes and tragic aesthetic principles. They make extensive use of techniques such as irony and black humor, giving people novel and rich aesthetic connotations. Yu Zhan'ao in "Red Sorghum" and Sun Bing in "Sandalwood Punishment" are not "anti-Japanese heroes" or "anti-German heroes" in the typical sense. For example, Yu Zhan'ao's bandit habits make him "the most beautiful and ugliest, the most detached and worldly" , the most holy and filthy, the most heroic and the most bastard”; another example is Sun Bing, whose original motivation for resisting Germany was that the Germans’ railway construction would destroy Feng Shui. When he formed the peasant army, he claimed to be the reincarnation of Yue Fei and enfeoffed the generals. While fighting, they chanted incantations and pretended to be gods and ghosts.

Mo Yan deliberately deviated from the traditional methods and aesthetic principles of shaping positive typical characters, and instead allowed them to stay in the true peasant mentality, full of the original colors of life, making them appear to be unsculpted character prototypes.

"Red Sorghum" and "Sandalwood Punishment" are both tragedies, but they are different from the traditional tragic aesthetic principles. They are not intended to arouse people's feelings of "compassion" and "sublimity", but with the help of Using techniques such as irony and black humor, it introduces readers to a fresh and expanded tragic aesthetic space. "Black humor" is a modernist novel genre popular in the United States in the 1960s. It is a literary method that expresses tragic content in the form of comedy. It has "anti-hero" characters and an "anti-novel" structure. It has been criticized by the West. Known as "Gallows Humor". It is more appropriate to use the term "humor under the gallows" to summarize the humorous features of Mo Yan's two novels. For example, before Sun Bing was trapped in a prison car and was being tortured, he sang a cat tune in front of all the villagers:

The front and back are cheering and majestic~~I wear a python dragon robe and carry a small golden flower hat~~I can She is also swaying, with a jade belt around her waist~~Look at the small group of pigs and dogs, who dares to kick my grandpa’s feet~~

This is somewhat similar to what Ah Q wanted to sing when he was beheaded "I will beat you with a steel whip in my hand." However, in Mo Yan's folk narratives, whether he said Sun Bing was stupid and ridiculous, or whether he died generously, they all contain more complex connotations, because Mo Yan's folk narratives themselves are diversified.

Another example is the county magistrate Qian Ding, who was worried about making mistakes during the torture, and ordered Zhao Jia and his son to demonstrate the sandalwood torture on a black pig in front of Yuan Shikai and the German commander Claude. Sun Bing's daughter Meiniang witnessed this scene and imagined a cat tune of her father being tortured:

The gongs and drums beat the strong wind, and the cat pulls Li Gedong. The black pig was spinning around with sandalwood prongs stuck in its butt. My father-in-law and Xiao Jia chased the pig into a small whirlwind. Yuan Shikai, the governor of Shandong, had one of his legs bitten off by a black pig, and his blood flowed to the ground. The German commander Claude had half of his butt eaten away by the black pig, and he lay on the ground grunting. This is really a happy thing, except for the two big disasters. Suddenly, there was a thunder and the earth changed. Yuan Shikai's legs were fine, and Claude's buttocks were intact. They were sitting upright on the chairs. In the middle of the stage, the black pig suddenly transformed and turned into my father. Old Sun Bing, lying on the ground and being tortured with a stake...

It is already ridiculous to demonstrate a very serious execution on a black pig. In addition, Meiniang's libretto contains truth, fiction, sadness, and hatred, which makes people laugh and cry, achieving the effect of "tearful irony".

Irony and ridicule are also one of Mo Yan’s most commonly used techniques. When he writes about the most tragic points, his writing often turns around, bringing readers into a seemingly "awkward" situation and giving people a broader imagination. worlds and more complex sensory spaces. For example, prisoner Zhao Jia Lingchi wrote: "He flicked his wrist, and the silver light of the knife flashed. The piece of meat stuck on the tip of the knife was like a bullet, flying up in a whoosh, flying to a high place, and then falling like a ball. A heavy piece of bird excrement landed on the head of a black-faced soldier. The soldier screamed strangely, and his body shook as if a brick had fallen on his head. " Another example is Sun Wu in "Red Sorghum". In the description of the skinning of Uncle Arhat, "a stream of burnt-yellow urine spurted out from between his legs", "Father saw that the uncle's ears were pale and beautiful, and the sound of the porcelain plate became even stronger." In short, the tragedies written by Mo Yan break the traditional aesthetic concept of tragedy, open up a new realm of folk expression, and promote the evolution and development of folk expression.

Unique narrative style

Novel is the art of narrative, and Mo Yan is an active explorer in this regard. His novels are influenced by Faulkner's stream of consciousness and Marquez's narrative mode. In the postscript of "Sandalwood Punishment", Mo Yan said: ""Sandalwood Punishment" was a conscious step back in my creative process, but unfortunately I didn't retreat far enough." From this sentence, we can see that Mo Yan strives to make the most of his early years. It emerged from the influence of Western modernism and gave full play to the narrative expertise of traditional Chinese novels, thereby forming its own narrative characteristics. "Sandalwood Punishment" incorporates folk rap art into the narrative, organically integrating modern Western literary techniques with Chinese folk literary techniques, and taking a big step forward on the road to nationalization.

Mo Yan's narrative pays special attention to feelings, unfolding experiences and expressions in a three-dimensional way, forming an overall experience of time and space. "Red Sorghum" and "Sandalwood Punishment" basically unfold the narrative from the subjective perspective of "I". "Red Sorghum" tells the story of "my" grandfather Yu Zhan'ao ambushing the Japanese invaders and his love entanglement with "my" grandmother.

"Sandalwood Punishment" consists of three parts: Fengtou, Pig Belly and Leopard Tail. The Fengtou unfolds the plot in the form of self-narration by narrators such as Meiniang Langyu, Zhao Jia's wild words, Xiaojia's silly words, Qian Ding's Hensheng, etc. The Leopard's Tail also unfolds the plot. The narrative is unfolded in the form of narration, narration, singing, swan song, etc. The pig belly in the middle seems to be written from an objective and omniscient perspective, but it is actually telling a legend in the form of oral narration or monologue. This way of unfolding the narrative from the subjective perspective of "I" facilitates narrative and description, opens up time and space, and expresses experiences freely and casually, creating a confiding effect. In the specific narrative, the author may intentionally strengthen the feelings of the characters in the work, allowing the people and objects in the work to exist and act in his own feelings; or he may deliberately create a special atmosphere that releases feelings. Mo Yan also combines light, color, shape, sound, taste, touch, taste and other feelings and imagination, organically blending time and space, reality and fantasy, and accurately expressing the inner world of the characters. For example, in "Red Sorghum" it is written that "my" father saw the blood on Wang Wenyi's face on the way to the ambush:

There was something dark blue flowing on his cheeks. My father reached out and touched the sticky, hot liquid. My father smelled something similar to the silt of the Black Water River, but much fresher than the silt of the Black Water River. It overpowered the fragrance of mint and the sweetness and bitterness of sorghum. It awakened my father's increasingly approaching memory, threading through the silt of the Black Water River, the black soil under the sorghum, and the past that would never die and the forever left. The inseparable present is connected, and sometimes everything will spit out the smell of human blood.

The smell of blood triggered the father's various feelings, connecting the Black Water River, sorghum, black soil, etc. in his life, organically integrating reality and the past to form a whole The experience of time and space accurately expresses the extremely complex psychology of a young man on the way to an ambush and before the too heavy test of life and death is about to come.

Another example is the somewhat overly exaggerated description of "my" grandma before her death. Under the blue sky, white clouds, and red sorghum, she saw "a group of snow-white wild pigeons swooping down from high in the sky." Then, with the help of the stream of consciousness technique, the author used poetic language to describe from the sky to the earth, from the past to the present. Now, let’s describe a series of visions of this colorful coming, especially the vision of “red sorghum”, “they groan, twist, howl, and twine”, praising their tenacious vitality. The constant transformation of space and time as well as the descriptive perspective more accurately describes "my" grandma's love for life and yearning for a better life.

In "Sandalwood Punishment", such long paragraphs describing feelings are no longer common, and are replaced by more concise emotional descriptions, such as a doctor observing the injury of Sun Bing who has been tortured for many days. When: "When he shook the head and tail of the wooden peg with his slender fingers, colorful foam emerged. The smell of carrion was suffocating, the flies were even more excited, and the buzzing sound was deafening." This sentimental description expresses the cruelty of torture in a shocking way.

The publication time of "Red Sorghum" and "Sandalwood Punishment" is more than ten years apart. In terms of narrative art, the latter is more mature and progressive than the former. First of all, in terms of narrative structure and the development of the story and plot, "Sandalwood Punishment" avoids the monophonic narration of "Red Sorghum", but a multi-voice ensemble, with various characters such as the dog-meat beauty, the county magistrate, the executioner, and the troupe leader. The narratives are unfolded in the form of idle words, hateful voices, ravings, and hateful voices that suit their respective personalities, and objectively form a whole. The structural divisions of "Sandalwood Punishment" with national characteristics: crested head, pig belly, leopard tail, the subjective perspective adopted in the first and third parts, and the omniscient perspective adopted in the middle part, forming an organic fusion of subjective perspective and omniscient perspective. In terms of narrative style and techniques, due to the use of various characters speaking to each other and expressing from multiple perspectives, the diversity of narrative perspectives and the richness of narrative connotations are formed. The narrative is more varied under the premise of a unified style. . In addition, "Sandalwood Punishment" integrates the language of drama and novel, which is both solemn and humorous, enriching and strengthening the tragic effect.

The use of modernist techniques

"Red Sorghum" and "Sandalwood Punishment" use a large number of modernist literary techniques in the spirit of realism, such as symbolism, metaphor, suggestion, metonymy, etc. The use of techniques enhances the expressive power of the work and deepens the connotation of the work. Mo Yan himself said: “Novel without symbols and morals is watery.

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Mo Yan’s novels are deeply influenced by Faulkner and Marquez. The “Northeast Gaomi Township” in his novels is closely related to Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County and Marquez’s Marquez. Like the small town of Kondo, it is full of symbols and meanings. As mentioned above, Mo Yan himself said that Gaomi Northeast Township should not be a geographical concept, but a literary concept. It is also the spiritual hometown of Mo Yan. Said: "The so-called expansion of the territory of Northeast Gaomi Township is not just the enrichment and increase of geography and vegetation, but more importantly, the expansion of thinking space. This is what I proposed a few years ago to transcend my hometown. To exaggerate a bit, this is a profound philosophical proposition. I roughly understand its meaning in my heart, but it is difficult to express it in clear language ("Searching for Red"). Gaoliang's Hometown")". It can be seen that when the author uses the concept of "Gaomi Northeast Township", he embodies a meaning and philosophical proposition, which contains profound ideological connotations. It can be said that Gaomi Northeast Township is the symbol of our suffering nation A microcosm. Just a "red sorghum" has endless meanings. It has multiple meanings. It can symbolize our tenacious national integrity and endless spiritual core. It can also refer to the fiery and wild passion for life. It can be a symbol of love, etc. "Red Sorghum" and "Sandalwood Punishment" wrote about the anti-Japanese and anti-German wars respectively, and the colonial invasion brought catastrophic damage to Northeast Gaomi Township. "The country is broken, the family is destroyed, and the compatriots are dying." Get up, pick up the knife, pick up the gun, fight the Japanese and protect your hometown..." The foreign enemy invaded, the homeland was destroyed, even the deaf, mute, and lame could only go to a team of forty people who "didn't know what an ambush was like." Beat the Japanese. What the author wants to express here is actually a kind of unyielding national spirit. In "Sandalwood Punishment", the rulers join in and they collude with each other to brutally oppress the people. Sandalwood Punishment is the result of China's thousands of years of violent culture. Why does the author take so much trouble to exaggerate a kind of torture? The crueler the punishment, the crueler the rulers and invaders, the deeper the blood and tears hatred of the people, and the stronger the national spirit! < /p>

Most of the men and women living in the black land of Gaomi Township in Northeast China have unrestrained rebellious characters. They love life, love their hometown, and dare to love and hate. At the same time, they also retain the perseverance to eliminate violence and resist foreign aggression. Great life potential. The female characters in Mo Yan's works, such as "My Grandma" in "Red Sorghum" and Sun Meiniang in "Sandalwood Punishment", are not traditional images of "good wives and loving mothers". They dare to defy traditional moral constraints, showing their The exaltation of vitality. Even the county magistrate Qian Ding, who was trapped in a money trap, came to his senses in the face of the brutal rulers and invaders, and killed Sun Bing with his own hands at the last moment, casting a shadow over the Germans' opening celebration. At the same time, Mo Yan does not shy away from the brutal, ugly and ignorant side of these characters. Through these characters, the author powerfully examines, criticizes and expresses the traditional cultural psychology of our nation.

Mo Yan said in the postscript of "Sandalwood Punishment" that this book contains two sounds, one is the sound of a train, and the other is the sound of a cat. The roar of the train symbolizes the modern civilization outside the region. At the end of the novel, the roar of the train overwhelmingly drowns out the once-popular cat voice, alluding to the powerful force of foreign civilization in modern Chinese feudal society, showing that The progress of history is unstoppable. It is worth mentioning that local operas such as Maoqiang are representative of folk culture, the emotional and spiritual sustenance of farmers in Northeast Gaomi Township, and the way of existence of folk lyricism. In Maoqiang's singing voice, which is full of emotion and emotion, the enthusiasm and ideals of the majority of people for life are entrusted. Contains folk vitality and original passion. In "Sandalwood Punishment", many characters such as Qian Ding, Sun Bing, Mei Niang, etc. all express their love for Maoqiang. Sun Bing, the leader of the Mao opera troupe, was tortured, and the last Mao opera troupe in Gaomi Northeast Township was wiped out by the Germans' guns. The complete disappearance of the Mao opera troupe implies that folk culture is as much as the fate of the people in this black land. The disasters also imply that under the oppression and destruction of feudal rulers and foreign invaders, everything full of freedom and vitality, including culture and even life, were ruthlessly strangled.

In short, the use of modernist techniques enriches and deepens the ideological and artistic connotation of the work, and enhances the expressive power of the work.

Mo Yan’s folk creations are of great significance to the development of contemporary literature. In the postscript of Sandalwood Punishment, Mo Yan wrote: “Today, when borrowing from Western literature overwhelms the inheritance of folk literature, Sandalwood Punishment is probably an anachronistic book.

"Sandalwood Punishment" was a conscious step back in my creative process, but unfortunately I didn't retreat far enough. "Mo Yan also claimed that his creations are a confrontation with the current fake "middle class". "Sandalwood Punishment" is very successful in drawing on folk literature. The more national something is, the more global it is. Except for "Sandalwood Punishment" , the success of several important novels in recent years, such as "White Deer Plain" and "The Dust Has Settled", all illustrate the important position and role of "folk" in creation.

There is no doubt that. The new generation literature has made important achievements in terms of individual creation and expression of existence. At the same time, its shortcomings are also obvious. Most of the new generation literature is based on current urban life. The narrative attitude is in the present tense and strives to use the public. The eyes show catering to materialism and fashion, are mostly whispering and realistic, and are filled with a large number of desire symbols. Literature has increasingly become a consumer demand, with narratives that are personal and trivial, and lack aesthetic significance and rationality. and lack, self-repetition and stereotype tendency, petty bourgeoisie sentiment, decadent atmosphere... Current literature shows unprecedented frivolity and weakness. Regarding the lack of essential things in contemporary literature, especially the new generation literature, Chen Xiaoming pointed out: "We give What does literature call for? It is to call for the aesthetic quality of literature. ” He further pointed out that this “aesthetic quality” includes four aspects: concern for the fate of characters, the implication of thoughts and emotions, and the exploration of the strength of life and the expressive power of language. Calling for the return of the aesthetic quality of literature, Mo Yan’s "Red" The successful explorations of "Sorghum" and "Sandalwood Punishment" in various ideological and artistic aspects have important implications for the creation and development of contemporary novels.