【From the first issue of the New Year's Selected Issues to See the New Atmosphere of Literature】
The pursuit of words and ambitions is far away, and the variety of life is splendour
——From the first issue of "Selected Miniature Novels" in 2022, we can see the characteristics and trends of small novel creation at present
Author: Li Honghua (Special Researcher of Jiangxi Provincial Research Center for theoretical system of socialism with Chinese Characteristics, Professor of School of Humanities, Nanchang University)
In recent years, the creation of small novels has attracted more and more attention from all sides. As a representative journal of small novels founded earlier in China, "Selected Miniature Novels" is an important window for us to investigate and understand the current small novel creation. For more than 30 years, this magazine sponsored by Baihuazhou Literature and Art Publishing House has adhered to the correct orientation and distinctive personality characteristics, and has selected and published a large number of outstanding small fiction works. Flipping through the first issue of "Selected Miniature Novels" in 2022, we can see that the current small novel creation is based on "close to the times, close to readers, close to life", further broadening the horizons, keeping the right and innovating, whether in terms of ideological content or art form, there is a gratifying new atmosphere and new pattern.
The emphasis is on small and subtle, micro and wonderful
"Small novels", also known as "miniature novels", are the most important stylistic features of "small" and "micro" in form, and some journals even set their word count at 1500 words or 2000 words. However, although the novel is known as "small", it is by no means "small" to do nothing. On the contrary, the small novel pays attention to small and subtle, small and wonderful, and pursues the short and far-reaching. These aesthetic pursuits are evident in the first issue of the Selected Miniature Novels in the first issue of the New Year.
For example, Hu Yan's "Goofy's Jianghu", when the lonely Goofy wanted to publish his works, he was "cornered", but after the success of business, all kinds of people in the literary and art circles flocked to him, and once they went bankrupt, they were "door to door". While the author concisely and vividly narrates the experience of Gao Fei's "jianghu", the candle illuminates the warmth and coldness of human feelings. Liu Guofang's "Duplicity of Mouth" and Dai Tao's "Fishing" both focus on depicting the appearance of characters with thrifty brush and ink, reflecting social customs. The former sketches the image of Zhang Sankou's duplicity through several conversations between colleagues in the unit; the latter recounts an intriguing fishing experience, which reflects the bad habits in the modern workplace.
Judging from the first issue of the "Selected Miniature Novels" in the new year, the small novels have a new bright color in writing social life and reflecting the style of the times. Hou Fashan's "Yuan Jia Lou" carries forward the Chinese nation's tradition of respecting the elderly through the Yuan brothers' righteous act of providing living subsidies for the widows and the elderly and donating to build a "Happiness Building". Xing Qingjie's "Fountain Pen" praises the wind of benevolence in the new era through Liu Xiaoli's father's purchase of pens to protect Wu Xiaotian's love. Tang Boqing's "Father and Lantern" expresses his love for excellent traditional culture through the inheritance of lantern skills by three generations of the family. In addition, Shen Yaofu's selfless help to embarrassed friends in "Scapegoat", Xiaodong's inseparability to the sick and disabled woman in the middle of "Restoring Life Scenes", Teacher Wang's care and love for difficult students in "A Round of Bright Moon", and The love and dedication of Xie Linshan and Defu to local customs in "Performance" and "Wedding Banquet" fully embody the current small novel creation focusing on promoting truth, goodness and beauty, and providing more positive spiritual food for the public.
It follows the stylistic "right path" of the small novel and constantly injects new vitality
The "narrow" narrative space of the small novel determines that the creator should pay special attention to the character design, plot arrangement and discourse method, and can only be "cautious and cautious", not "arbitrary", otherwise it will bring an unbearable "load" to the work. Examining the first issue of the New Year's "Selected Miniature Novels", most of the selected works follow the stylistic "right path" of small novels in terms of artistic expression, usually there are not many characters, the plot is simple, the concept is clever, and the discourse is condensed.
Liu Zhengquan's "Restoring the Scene of Life" mainly tells the emotional story between a man and two women in the form of "restoration" flashbacks. Duan Xiaodong worked day and night between his disabled wife Wu Anmei and his seriously ill ex-girlfriend Qiu Xiaoxia. Although Wu Anmei knew about her husband's "affair", she did not understand his "bitterness", and Qiu Xiaoxia sold her house to pay a salary to duan Xiaodong, who was in distress, and the latter did not know it. Responsibility and morality are not only the themes of the work, but also the root cause of the author's clever ambush to restore life, and the cleverness of leaving room for room at the end is even more applauded.
Xing Qingjie's "Fountain Pen" tells the story of a past event that happened decades ago from the perspective of a first-person "I". Liu Xiaoli's pen was lost in the classroom, and "I", as a teacher, borrowed various "detective" means to find out that it may have been stolen by Wu Xiaotian, but the parties did not admit it, and Liu Xiaoli even took out the "lost and recovered" pen to excuse Wu Xiaotian. Until many years later, Wu Xiaotian, who had a successful career, told "me" the truth, and it turned out that Liu Xiaoli's father had privately bought a pen in order to protect Wu Xiaotian, whose parents were divorced. In the telling of the whole story, the author adopts the narrative tone of "careful and careful", and the plot arrangement is full of twists and turns, especially the unexpected delay at the end is touching.
"Poetry follows the fortunes of the world, and it is always new." Innovation is the life of literature and art. The novel is the "light cavalry" in the "novel family", which has inherent advantages in absorbing the strengths of all people and pioneering and innovating, which is not difficult to be reflected in the selected works in this issue of "Miniature Novel Selection".
Xie Zhiqiang's "Two Questions of the Ancients in the Hometown" sets its sights on the distant ancient times, telling the story of Chen Yong and Shen Yaofu, two righteous people who are the way to deal with the world. The work begins with the meta-narrative technique of contemporary avant-garde novels, in which the narrator appears in the first person to inform the reader how to write and what to write; later, drawing on the narrative style of ancient notebook novels, concisely introducing characters and narrating anecdotes. The author not only opens up a new subject area for the current small novels from the palms of historical figures, but also integrates and grafts the ancient and modern novel techniques to achieve artistic innovation in the creation of small novels.
Xia Yang's "Dreamland" depicts the dangerous encounters of "he" in a two-fold dream from a third-person perspective, presenting the reader with deep valleys, luxurious villas, rough landlords, water-soaked houses, and the terrified protagonist. Obviously, the author has introduced the expression methods of Western modernist novels into small novels, which has a distinct experimental exploration color in artistic expression.
In addition, Zhou Dongming's "Painting Crickets" draws on allegorical techniques to paint people; Yuan Zuojun's "Cannon Erping V" draws on folk tales and uses chess as a metaphor for life; Ma Guiming's "Winter to the Northeast to See the Snow" uses prose tones and poetic moods to write the hazy beauty of love; Xiao Jing's "Sending Cotton Jackets" uses blank space to express ethical affection and revolutionary love. In short, judging from this issue of "Selected Miniature Novels", the current small novel creation is "keeping right" at the same time, actively drawing on the excellent literary experience of ancient and modern China and foreign countries, and constantly pursuing artistic innovation.
The addition of the Forces nouvelles is bringing a new atmosphere
Flipping through this issue of "Selected Miniature Novels", people can't help but feel a vitality and vitality that keeps pace with the times. In order to "support and cultivate the team of college students' miniature novel writing", the magazine specially launched a new column of "College Online" in the first issue of the New Year, "for college students across the country to solicit papers, specially published in the original miniature novel works of college students", dedicated to cultivating new forces in small novel creation.
The first appearance of the "College Online" column are two original short fiction works. Shen Jingyi's "Going Out on a Rainy Day" exudes a fresh breath in terms of ideological meaning and artistic expression. On a rainy afternoon, the young protagonist of the world packs his bags alone and embarks on a journey to find "poetry and far away". On the one hand, the author integrates the atmosphere of Márquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and Yu Hua's "Eighteen-Year-Old Journey" into the limited time and space of the small novel, on the other hand, he completely ignores the narrative "stereotype" of the small novel, grafts the stylistic functions of poetry and prose onto the small novel, and takes the "he" from home to the station a short journey as the main body of the narrative. No wonder the host of the column said that after reading this work, he "smiled heartily", and for small novels that have always paid attention to "fine" and "clever", "poetry and far away" are by no means out of reach.
Next, Qi Xiaotong's "Conjecture on the Balcony" is equally wonderful. Yi Ran is dissatisfied with the crumbs of life after marriage, and originally wanted to be angry with her husband who did not care about the housework, but accidentally learned the truth about his private work for the family from the mobile phone text message. From the perspective of the subject matter, this "conjecture on the balcony" triggered by the mobile phone is nothing special, but the daily life and emotional psychology of a young couple. However, the author adopts the narrative method of foreshadowing and flashback tracking, creating suspense and tension, especially at the end, although the wife knows that it is not easy for the husband to bear the burden of the family alone, it is still difficult to calm the imbalance. Judging from the stylistic norms of small novels, if "Going Out on a Rainy Day" wins with "breaking the body" innovation, then "Conjecture on the Balcony" is known for its "integration", and the creation of new generation small novels can't help but make people look at it differently.
The "Miniature Novel Selection" deserves praise for the beginning of the new year, as well as supporting new works for newcomers while not forgetting to pay tribute to famous classics. This issue of Classic New Readings has set its sights on overseas, inviting small story writer and critic Liu Haitao to reread and rewrite two classics of contemporary American short fiction — Poe's "Night Return" and Arthur Gordon's "The Rose of Happiness." Liu Haitao first sorted out the creation status and stylistic theory of Chinese and foreign small novels, and then used the multi-model thinking of "intention, plot, and ending" to interpret the two classic works, trying to "find a deep creative thinking and structural model of them", and finally creatively rewritten the original work. From these "activated" classic designs and arrangements, it is not difficult to find the conscious efforts of the "Selected Miniature Novels" to promote the prosperity and development of small novel creation.
Guangming Daily (2022.01.26.14 edition)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily