If I want to answer a general question about whether the achievements of contemporary literature in China outweigh the shortcomings or the shortcomings outweigh the achievements, my answer is yes: of course, the achievements outweigh the shortcomings. Literature is a historical development, and it is difficult to make a simple analogy for literature in different periods because of different environments and backgrounds.
Generally speaking, contemporary literature has been in the process of development and progress, and its achievements in some specific aspects have also shown a spiral upward trend. In choosing the most important person, at least three aspects are obvious and worthy of attention.
First, new creative groups are constantly emerging, and the literary creation situation is unprecedentedly active.
Compared with the past, the biggest change in literature in these years is that it has stepped out of the past unitary pattern and presented a rare variety of States and pluralistic patterns. Outside the writers' association and the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, many writers outside the system have emerged, and some have become professional and semi-professional writers. In addition to traditional thesis writing, there are a large number of online writers who use online platforms to display their talents and have a large number of literary readers. At present, there are about six generations of China writers who are active in the contemporary literary world, from Wang Meng and Zhang Jie, born in11930, to Zhang Yueran and Jing M.Guo, born in11980, which can be called "six generations living under one roof". And these writers, because of different angles and different purport, are also very different in creation, which actually constitutes the overall richness and richness with their own unique personality. As far as writers and professional teams in the system are concerned, there is an obvious change: regional cultural writing is gradually prominent, and marginal writers are rising. The former, such as many writers devoted to the writing of local reality, formed a certain regional community, such as writers from southern Jiangsu, Nanyang, Ningxia, Xihaigu, Zhaotong, Yunnan and Dazhou, Sichuan. The latter writers, such as some marginalized writers in Xinjiang, Gansu, Yunnan and Ningxia, have made rapid progress in recent years and become a new force in literary creation, such as Dong Libo in Xinjiang, Xuemo in Gansu, Fan Wen in Yunnan, Guo Wenbin and Zhang Wendong in Ningxia. This kind of regional and marginal backwardness is relatively rare in the past, so it has become a prominent bright color in the current literary world.
Second, the overall level of literary creation is rising, and the achievements in novel creation are particularly outstanding.
On the surface, the literary creation in these years seems to lack some hot spots and highlights. In fact, the overall creation has been developing steadily, and this real and solid performance is often obscured and ignored by the entertainment reports of the media. In documentary literature, reportage on social problems continues to be close to the society and readers with its edge of boldly exposing the disadvantages of the times, and the biographical literature part has made a greater breakthrough than in the past in exploring the depth and intensity of historical destiny from human destiny; In terms of prose and prose, great prose from a historical and cultural perspective has flourished. In addition, ecological prose on natural changes and environmental issues has gradually become a climate, which has aroused widespread concern. The once-depressed poetry creation has also gained new vitality in the form of "online poetry" and "working poetry"
In the current literary creation, the development of novels is the fastest and the most prominent. Since the beginning of the new century, the annual output of novels has remained at around 1 10,000, and the quality has also shown a steady upward trend. The year before last, I wrote novels about rural reality, including Jia Pingwa's Shaanxi opera, Alai's empty mountain and Bi Feiyu's plain. There are brothers and regrets by Yu Hua, heroes are everywhere by Wang Anyi and Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong. As representatives of different themes and writing methods, these works mark the actual development of novel creation. Last year, only famous novels were written by famous artists, including Stupid Flowers by Tie Ning, Fatigue of Life and Death by Mo Yan, My Journey to Ding Yi by Shi Tiesheng, Compassion for the Earth by Fan Wen, Red Coal by Su Tong, Binu by Su Tong, A Pirate in Shan Lang by Deng Gang and Ruyi Highland by Ma Lihua. In addition, Dou Liang's The Wolf Smoke in Beiping belongs to the category of new masterpieces, and so on. Such a ratio of about a dozen outstanding works every year, plus the accumulation of outstanding works that won the Mao Dun Literature Award in previous years, should say that novels represent the literary achievements and artistic level of our time in quantity and quality. At the symposium on Mao Dun Literature Prize held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province last year, when talking about the creative achievements of novels, many people thought that novels since the 1990s not only surpassed the "seventeen years" period of the same period, but also surpassed the modern thirty years period, regardless of the profundity of the theme and artistic innovation. I am a staunch supporter of this argument because it is a literary fact proved by the work itself.
Third, contemporary literature, in its persistence and development, has become the banner and main axis of the changing contemporary literary world with its own role and influence.
Generally speaking, the current literature and literary world are full of transitional characteristics, but it is a basic development trend to survive in difficulties and advance in bumps.
Gu Bin has two general views on contemporary literary criticism. One is that China writers lack a sense of social responsibility, and the other is that most China writers are not serious about language. I think the first one is very inaccurate. He may refer to the extreme personalized writing, which is not the mainstream in contemporary literature and has no universal representation. In my opinion, the universal sense of social responsibility is precisely the outstanding feature and strength of China writers, which has been fully demonstrated in novels, short stories, essays and documentary works in recent years. I think the second opinion has some truth. Many writers have not made enough efforts to form their own unique language style, and there are many problems. They really need to enhance their language awareness and experience in language art, but I don't agree with his accusation that China writers generally don't understand foreign languages. This is not a big obstacle to literary language, but it is better to have it, and it doesn't matter if there is nothing.
Some people often despise the current literary world with the lack of masters, which is really a vain and unrealistic view and practice. What is a master and who is a master? Different people have different standards and different opinions. Moreover, the title of master is often a final evaluation of the former writer by later generations. For writers who are still active in the current literary world, it is obviously too early and too ugly to say who is the recognized master. But a writer with a master image should be among them. According to my standards, there are indeed many writers who have this kind of atmosphere, such as Mo Yan, Yu Hua, Su Tong, and Chen, Jia Pingwa, Alai and Li Rui. For example, Wang Anyi and Tie Ning ... their existing works have entered the ranks of "classics" and their works are still developing. For them, people should hold higher and greater expectations, including "masters".