These questions are difficult to answer. On the one hand, due to social transformation, all values are vacillating, and the answer to any question is vacillating and inconclusive. On the other hand, writers are struggling to choose and transform, and they are also trying to answer these questions. Even researchers are in a trance, as critic Yao Wang said: "With the cultural transformation and the division of the intellectual community, various phenomena of Chinese writing have appeared since the 1990s, which has made researchers somewhat in a trance and even diverted their attention or academic runway. If we only regard this situation as the contradiction between the researcher's knowledge background and the current cultural context, we obviously only tell one side of the problem: in fact, writers and critics are also experiencing fierce conflicts, and the literary process since the 1990 s has also exposed the ubiquitous confusion and contradictions of intellectuals including writers. " But if we don't look at the problem from the source, but from the perspective of the future and the law of literature's own development, it will be clear at a glance. Generally speaking, the changes that writers are experiencing and may occur since the new century mainly have three directions:
First, the transformation of social roles and identities.
After the founding of New China, in order to support writers' creation and make literary creation serve the national development, the state not only provided officials sent by writers' associations to guide their creation from the perspective of the government, but also set up a team of professional writers with special funds. Any writer who has made achievements in amateur creation in other industries will immediately enter the team of professional creation. Writers at that time were divided into two categories: professional writers and amateur writers. Professional writers have a very high social status. Over time, this became the system of China writers. In this system, the writer becomes a single creator with few other social roles. In the decades before 1990s, writers in China were the most dazzling stars in many industries, and they were called "engineers of the human soul". Writers were also accustomed to this single role. However, since the market economy occurred in the 1990s, writers began to lose in the process of publishing, news and cultural institutions slowly moving towards the market. Some of them went into the sea, and some gradually left their professional posts and moved to other posts. This is just a prelude. In the new century, due to the active publishing and journalism, writers began to be divided into four parts: one part and most of them were loosely managed by the Chinese Writers Association, including professional writers and amateur writers. Professional writers are still the main force, and the state has policy support for them in social status and salary. The second part is a group of writers who are United by publishing houses at all levels, some folk publishing houses and even the news media because of their commercial interests. These writers include not only professional writers, but also many amateur writers. They are the most dazzling star writers at present. Such as post-80s writers, such as Yi Zhongtian, Yu and other cultural writers, such as Yu Hua, Mo Yan and Jia Pingwa. The third part is the grassroots writers who are active on the Internet. Among these writers, some were once romantic, but later lost their beauty, loneliness and unhappiness, and more were grassroots writers with literary dreams. They are active in every corner and may become famous writers at any time. The last part is a group of writers, including literary critics, who live in universities and research institutes and engage in literary creation and criticism without any worries. These people also include those who are studying for master of arts and doctoral students. These writers and critics have played a great role in recent years, and it is here that an intellectual writing atmosphere is set off.
Judging from social status and economic income, the first part of writers are actually vulnerable groups. In addition to those professional writers who are very popular, more professional writers are struggling between officials (actually just a kind of treatment) and literati, and their social status and economic income are far less than those of university professors. Because of this, a large number of well-known writers have turned to colleges and universities, such as, Liang,,, Yang and so on. Judging from this transformation, writers in China are eagerly looking for social transformation, that is, redefining personal identity and social role.
But this is really just the beginning. The real change is that a writer may no longer be a simple profession, but a social worker. For example, Lu Xun, Lin Yutang and Shen Congwen in 1930s and 1940s were all university teachers and writers. They don't simply define their role as writers, but as cultural workers who have an influence on society. Therefore, they directly face the society and show its disadvantages, which plays an important role in the development of society. Another example is Marquez, who was a journalist when he was young and traveled all over North America. It is precisely because of their extensive contact with society that they have a profound grasp of society. However, professional writers who appear alone in China have been working in the studio, lacking experience and understanding of society. How can they write great works that really touch people's hearts and are recognized by society? In recent years, many newspapers are discussing this change. Successful writers, such as Bi Shumin, combine their identity as writers with psychologists and medical workers. Another example is Liang, who organically combined his creation with the work of a social worker and a university professor, and wrote influential works such as Analysis of Social Stratum in China. Another example is Ma Yuan and Gefei.
Deep down, making such a change is actually a change in a writer's writing motivation. He also has to think and answer some basic questions, such as "why write", "what is the responsibility of a writer" and "to whom". Faulkner wrote in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech: "The duty of poets and writers is to write about the immortality of human beings." This is a very high standard, and then he said, "The poet's special glory lies in that he inspires people and reminds them of courage, honor, hope, pride, sympathy, pity and sacrifice." Nobel Prize in Literature winner Lagvis also said: "The writer's task is to clarify his era from the artist's point of view, and to express and reveal the thoughts and feelings of this era for us and future generations." Hemingway put it more thoroughly: "The writer's job is to tell people the truth. His standard of loyalty to truth should reach such a high level, and his works based on his own experience should be more real than anything practical. Because the actual things are not well observed; But when an excellent writer creates, he has time and a world of activities, and he can write absolutely true. " What these great writers tell us is nothing more than that a writer, whether professional or amateur, should think about the big problems of human existence as long as he has a sense of responsibility, and should not be a person who is indifferent to the human situation.
In fact, when we carefully observe the history of literature, we can easily find that writers have some similarities in every period of social transformation. As soon as they turned to pure artistic writing, they turned their brush strokes to society and became sociologists or philosophers. They paved the way for the times with the pen of literature, and their voices not only represented himself, but also represented the common aspiration of all mankind. Of course, they don't write for politics as some writers think at present. They represent neither politics nor a certain group, but human conscience, revived humanity, human ideals and positive values. The European Renaissance, the rising stage of western social capitalism in the19th century, and the "sexual revolution" in the west after World War II are all important stages in the historical development of western society. It is not only the stage of political and economic change, but also the change of cultural life. During these periods, many "problem novels" came into being. Through the art of novels, writers have discussed the human nature confusion, ethical contradictions and belief crisis that people face, thus playing a role in social life. The May 4th New Culture Movement is a great era of real cultural transformation after a hundred schools of thought contend, which produced a large number of writers, such as Lu Xun, Hu Shi and Yu Dafu. They are all famous in the literary world for writing "problem novels" about China people's survival dilemma and human nature under the fission of China traditional culture. Wound literature and root-seeking literature, which have appeared since the reform and opening up, are also "problem novels" in the period of social change. At present, the social transformation that China is facing is the most profound. From a deeper level, it is a period of transformation to the world culture, rather than the shallow transformation of China culture. From a sociological point of view, China people are facing too many problems now. It can almost be said that the belief dilemma and a series of social problems faced by westerners after World War II have been faced one by one in China. This is the era we writers face today. This social characteristic can be said to provide a good creative opportunity for writers. We have reason to believe that in this era or in the near future, this profound social and cultural change will spawn a large number of great writers. This change requires the writer to re-establish the sacred mission of "the engineer of the human soul", break away from the small circle of self, pay attention to social problems, pay attention to the suffering faced by people, and shoulder the heavy responsibility unloaded from his shoulders again. Especially in this material period, writers should carry the banner of spirit and fight for human existence and belief.
Second, the turn of creative style and aesthetics.
First of all, rural novels have changed to urban novels, and poetic writing has changed to lust. This is also a view that the famous literary critic Mr. Radar talked about when he gave a report in a university in Lanzhou in 2007. Heidegger said, "Man lives poetically on the earth". Its profound meaning is that the self-righteous commodity civilization of human beings has destroyed the relationship between man and nature, and the ecology is facing a severe test. However, all this has not changed the situation of China people flooding into cities, nor has it changed the writer's creative trend. Since the new century, the bottom-level writing with migrant workers as the main body has not only attracted the attention of the literary world, but also centered on the city. Native land and city represent farming culture and commodity culture respectively. The self-sufficiency of farming economy endows farming culture with the characteristics of poetry, constancy, moderation, introversion and peace, while commodity culture represents the characteristics of variability, impermanence, regularity, extroversion, predation and desire. This is a profound social revolution. It means that our thousands of years of farming culture is transforming into a commodity culture as a whole. Many writers have sensitively grasped this change and consciously put their brush strokes into this social movement.
In this kind of desirous writing, what is consistent with urban culture is youth writing, because the sacrifice place of these youths is often the city. Since the emergence of the post-80s generation, the Internet has also opened up, so a youth writing competition has been staged. In fact, it started as early as the 1970s, but most of them are "body writing", "beauty writers" and "lower body writing", and the post-80s generation is just a hollow reputation. If we carefully read the writings of the post-70s and post-80s youth about desire, we will be surprised to find that the post-80s are actually temperate in this respect, while the post-80s suffer from spiritual emptiness, so their writings tend to be spiritualized. For example, Wei Hui, Mianmian and Anny Baby, the representatives of "body writing" after 1970s, are more wanton and crazy than Haruki, the representative of youth writing after 1980s.
Secondly, grand narrative changes to daily narrative. This is a way for people to seek eternal value and life meaning in daily life, or to deconstruct traditional life values from trivial and irrelevant daily phenomena, so as to establish new values. The former is the Myth of Sisyphus by the existentialist philosopher Camus, and the latter is the philosophy of another existentialist master Sartre, or the narrative mode of postmodernism after Sartre. Art historian Herschel said: "What is crucial in human existence is what is hidden, suppressed, ignored or distorted." It is in this daily life that writers find meaning and value, attach importance to and affirm the world of daily life, and show confidence in people. The TV series Struggle, which was recently staged, is the daily life narrative of Shi Kang, a post-70s writer. The protagonists in the narrative are lost, scarred and unrepentant in their daily life, but they finally find their own meaning and value in their daily life, especially in the final declaratory confession of the protagonist Lu Tao. We learned that the value he gained in his daily life was "I am an ordinary person."
Finally, while learning from the world, I return to the narrative of China's traditional novels. Since 1980s, the frame of reference for China writers' writing is not China contemporary writers, or even modernist writers, but world literature. Avant-garde novels were born under such a vision. With the further deepening of reform and opening up, cultural exchanges have become more profound. Compared with the 1980s, most of China people's understanding of western culture is its democracy, science, system and other appearances. Since 1990s, China people have become more and more interested in the sources of western culture (Hebrew culture and Greek culture), and their understanding and learning of western culture has become crucial. China writers, such as Yu Hua and Mo Yan, constantly go to the West to study and communicate. At the same time, with the outstanding contribution of China's economy on the world stage, the traditional culture of China began to attract the attention of westerners. Under the influence of this external force, China writers pay more and more attention to local culture and begin an undercurrent of returning to China culture. The narrative spirit in China's traditional literature is increasingly inherited by local writers. Chen's White Deer Plain is a real description of Confucian culture in China. The works of Zhang Wei and Li Rui in recent years are basically close to farming culture. Even the pioneer writer Ge Fei is drawing lessons from classic novels such as A Dream of Red Mansions, and thinks that Peach Blossom Garden is a return to China's traditional narrative spirit.
Third, the theme of the work and its excavation
Let's talk about the diversity of creative themes first. When it comes to themes, we must first involve ideas. Since the May 4th Movement, writers and readers in China are most familiar with the realistic literary view, but even this literary view has been constantly encountering rebellion and adjustment. For example, avant-garde writers are rebelling against this, so is postmodernism, and neo-realism is just fine-tuning. Laozi said: "Those who are Taoist do the opposite." . This means that only by subverting the existing traditions can there be new development, otherwise, there will be only stagnation. This law is most suitable for philosophy and art. A few years ago, the writer Yan Lianke published a novel "The Suffering of Living". In his postscript, he mercilessly attacked and reformed the realistic literary tradition of half a century. Later, he expounded this concept on different occasions. The author points out that the authenticity of literature lies in the author's heart, not just the appearance explained by political intentions. It should be said that this change is a very valuable change for Yan Lianke himself, and it is also a wake-up call for writers and critics who have long adhered to the realistic literary tradition of "literature is a reflection of real life". In fact, this realistic literary tradition of reflection theory was abandoned by avant-garde writers in the 1980s. Yan Lianke's idea is not new. The problem is that it is still a great drink for the writers of the older generation and those who are not influenced by modernist art, and this understanding of realism will profoundly affect the realistic literature in China in the future. Realistic literature can best play its role in criticizing society, revealing social contradictions and exploring the value of human beliefs during the social transformation period, so realistic literature will remain the main force of literary creation in the new period.
Rebellion is the most full spirit of writers since 1980s, especially since the turbulent 1980s. In the 1990s, this rebellious art experimental movement gradually drifted away and became rational. Yao Wang said after inspecting contemporary writers: "It must be admitted that contemporary writers in China have their own interpretations of these writers? China problem? The position and method, and it is a very persistent position, which can be seen from the works of Han Shaogong, Li Rui and Zhang Wei since the 1990s. Contemporary writers return to themselves, attach importance to local experience and their own traditions. Modernity has been inspired by words, and various cultural imaginations have begun to be implemented? China problem? Come up. ⑤ Since the beginning of the new century, contemporary writers have been less and less influenced by politics, and their creative themes have really become diversified. At present, there are writers who take China traditional culture as their theme, such as Chen, Zhang Wei, Li Rui and Mo Yan. There are also writers represented by Yan Lianke, Yang Xianhui and Tie Ning, revealing the plight of China people at present. Creators with historical themes, such as Su Tong, Ye, and February River. And creators who broke the current forbidden zone, such as Xu Guixiang, author of Historical Sky, and Dou Liang, author of Bright Sword; There are both the shows of young writers Han Han and Jing M.Guo, and the transformation of beautiful women writers Tie Ning and Hong Ying. Writers who turn to fantasy themes, such as Zhang Xiaoxian; There are also writers who explore marriage and family ethics, such as Chi Li and Wang Hailing. There are writers Jia Pingwa and Luo who write about the lower class people, and there are countless writers who write about high-level corruption.
We should also pay special attention to the emergence of another creative theme, that is, ecological literature with the theme of ecological spirit. Ecological problems are the problems that human beings began to pay attention to in the second half of the twentieth century. By the end of the twentieth century and the new era, this problem has become a global problem. It not only aroused people's concern about the environment, but also directly affected the development of philosophy. It seems that a new ethical relationship is being re-established among human beings, nature and all life, which is likely to lead to a global ideological explosion. In 1990s, Ma Lihua's series of essays not only attracted the attention of the whole China literary world, but also attracted the attention of the whole world. Tibet fever has her share of the credit. Different from Tibet's political and cultural themes, Ma Lihua told us about Tibet's ecology. Lu Chuan's film Hoh Xil once again draws our attention to the deteriorating ecology of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It was not until the appearance of Wolf Totem that the literary world woke up, and the literature with the theme of ecology was born and rose unconsciously, which made us feel pain. On the surface, ecological literature only writes about the destruction of ecology, but in fact it tells us that human civilization has completely gone to the opposite side and should be reviewed. This is a new worldwide creative phenomenon, which we should pay attention to.
Let's talk about the diversity of subjects first. Writer Liu Zhenyun said in an interview with a certain media: "It's not that I want to transform myself, but that you have to transform yourself to become a writer." And the author is just the opposite of this profession. What will you write next? If you want to write differently, what you can't write next is nonsense. Therefore, to ask the author to transform, you must intentionally transform, otherwise this transformation will definitely fail. Creation has reached such a stage, and the requirements of internal creation require me to transform. Of course, as far as I'm concerned, a chicken feather is a time, the review of 1942 is a time, the mobile phone is a time, and my name is Liu Yuejin. It's no use changing because of different roads. You keep playing tricks on the same road. "6. Liu Zhenyun's voice is undoubtedly the creative track faced by all writers (those conscious writers). The question is, what themes are contemporary writers changing in the new era?
The center of investigation is still the place with the most social and social problems, and it must also be the place where writers focus on performance and excavation. Since the new period, China has faced too many problems. From a cultural point of view, it is natural that the moral transformation after cultural transformation is the most prominent, especially the ethics of marriage and family. Therefore, a deeper exploration of this subject has begun. At present, the exploration of this subject has tended to psychology. For example, Don't Tell Strangers is a work that everyone is familiar with. Wang Hailing's "Chinese Divorce" and other works with the theme of marriage have aroused heated discussion at present, indicating that people need these works.
Judging from China's national conditions, the biggest and most realistic problems at present are migrant workers, education, medical care and housing. Although this is a political theme, it involves all aspects of social life. Writers don't have to follow political orientation in their creation, but should dig deeper social problems. For example, many writers are writing about the problems of migrant workers. At first, they were limited to superficial poverty. However, later writers focused on revealing the mental problems of migrant workers. For example, Jia Pingwa's Happy is about the mental journey of a migrant worker. Works with these themes are definitely hot topics at the moment.
Judging from the communication between China culture and the world culture, the blending and collision of various cultures is the most sensitive theme in this social culture, and the works of this village will also become a fruitful garden for writers. At present, there are many works in this field. For example, the TV series Peking Man in new york is about the collision between China culture and American culture, and Land of Water and Milk is about the dialogue between Tibetan Buddhism and _ _ _ _. The works with the theme of cultural dialogue will not only have a wide audience in China, but also be more accessible to the international community.
Judging from the deep people's livelihood culture in China, folk culture, especially the folk culture that was taboo in the past, will become one of the topics discussed by writers. Chen's White Deer Plain, Jia Pingwa's Shaanxi Opera and Mo Yan's Fatigue of Life and Death all wrote some taboo folk customs in China, which played a finishing touch in the novel. Under the background of protecting intangible cultural heritage, there will be many such novels.
Fourth, transfer to new media.
It is an indisputable fact that the Internet and film and television media have a growing influence on literature, and many writers have gradually transitioned from traditional paper media to new media. In the past, writers were dismissive of film and television creation. Now, most writers hope to get an electric shock to expand their readers. After Wang Shuo and Hai Yan, a large number of writers such as Su Tong, Zou Jingzhi and Yang devoted themselves to film and television creation. After the popularity of the Internet, almost all writers and grassroots writers who have contact with the Internet have their own blogs and are constantly writing. This kind of writing has two obvious characteristics: first, the writer attaches great importance to his online status, and it becomes a private media, where he can publish any information about himself and others and has unprecedented freedom. This is very attractive to writers. The second is its interactivity. A writer's original works published in newspapers and periodicals often don't know its true reaction, but now readers will come to talk about feelings, praise or criticism immediately. No matter what the taste, these sounds are very real. These two characteristics attract writers. Many writers no longer contribute to the paper media, but concentrate on blogging, just waiting for the blog book to be published directly one day.
This trend is profound. It shows that the writer has begun to really face the readers. For a long time, there have been several tendencies in the field of poetry and avant-garde novels: first, China's literature and art have gone global, but China's readers still stay in the past, and writers and poets have complaints about readers; Second, writing for the history of literature, that is, writing according to the laws of literature, regardless of the reader's acceptance, was very popular for a period of time; Third, stick to the traditional paper media and reject the new art media; Fourth, some so-called pure literature concepts stick to the rules, but refuse to absorb the nutrition in popular literature, and so on. Although it may also produce great works, it is a stagnation for the whole literary creation trend. Literature from oral literature to written literature is a leap in form, and from Oracle Bone Inscriptions and other forms of lettering literature to silk books and Han bamboo slips, it is also a formal revolution. After the invention of papermaking and printing, literature has grown wings and can fly to thousands of households overnight. The film and television media that appeared in the last century has not exerted its powerful media power until now, and the emergence of computers and networks can be said to be another literary revolution. Online media can almost include oral literature, paper literature and film and television literature. The phenomenon of post-80s writers can be said to be the first to seize and make use of this advantage. The impact of post-80s literature on the whole literary world in the past year or two directly indicates a new literary era.
Xu Zhaoshou Northwest Normal University
To annotate ...
(1) Is the cultural transformation in Yao Wang beginning again? Reflections after dialogue with contemporary writers, selected from the 2002 Literary Review edited by Lin Jianfa, Feng Chun Literature and Art Publishing House, 2003, p. 349.
(2) Wang Mansheng edited "Punctuality Collection of Nobel Prize in Literature Prize-winning Writers II Life", Qinghai People's Publishing House, 1993 edition, p. 280.
(3) Wang Mansheng edited "Nobel Prize in Literature Prize-winning Writer's Punctuality Collection 2 Life", Qinghai People's Publishing House, 1993 edition, p. 280.
(4) Nobel Prize in Literature Prize-winning Writers' Lectures II Life, edited by Wang Mansheng, Qinghai People's Publishing House, 1993, p. 28 1.
⑤ Yao Wang, a new start in cultural transformation? Reflections after dialogue with contemporary writers, selected from the 2002 Literary Review edited by Lin Jianfa, Feng Chun Literature and Art Publishing House, 2003, p. 350.
⑥ Chongqing Channel of Xinhuanet, Transformation is the Requirement of Writers' Profession, 2007 165438+ 10/7.