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Organizer of Shanghai Federation of Social Sciences
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The recurrence and metaphor of "disease"
- The "morbid" narrative in the literature of the new era
Li Yanyi | Doctoral candidate, College of Liberal Arts, Jilin University
Zhang Fugui | Professor, College of Liberal Arts, Jilin University
This article was published in Exploration and Controversy, No. 11, 2021, and has been abridged for ease of reading
Unless noted, the pictures in the text are from the Internet
Following the enlightenment of May Fourth Thought, at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, the image of "disease" once again emerged in literary creation. The reproduction of the "morbid" narrative in this period has a more complex and novel emotional orientation and metaphorical connotation: on the one hand, the author uses rich disease images to convey his metaphorical thinking about history, culture and society; on the other hand, with the aestheticization, spectacle abuse and over-deduction of disease imagery, problems such as the "hollowing out" of the metaphorical connotation of disease imagery also appear. The analysis of the reproduction of the pathological narrative in the new era and its metaphorical connotation must be combined with the history of Chinese literature and the core of traditional culture for retrospective rheological investigation, returning to the specific historical, cultural and social contexts to reveal the hidden practical motives and consideration of the times behind it, clarifying the multiple constructions of the writer's pathological discourse and its complex emotional orientation at this stage, and analyzing its limitations.
"Every person who comes to this earth has dual citizenship, one of which belongs to the kingdom of health and the other to the kingdom of disease." Disease is the eternal theme of survival, and it is also an unavoidable topic in literary writing with people as objects. In the context of the cultural atmosphere of the May Fourth period of ideological enlightenment and the era of salvation and survival, people of insight frequently used disease imagery as a metaphor for China's weakness and ignorance at the social, cultural and ideological levels. In the 1980s, influenced by the "re-enlightenment" trend, the image of illness once again emerged in the literary creations full of reflective and critical meaning at that time, and the reproduction of "sick" narratives in this period showed more complex and novel emotional directions and metaphorical connotations. Although many researchers focus their interests on typical writers' works and specific literary phenomena, and try to summarize the phased characteristics and significance of the pathological narrative of literature in the new period with the help of "objectified" literary interpretation and phenomenon analysis, objectively speaking, whether as an image or a theme, the attention and presentation of Chinese literature to pathology is not a new phenomenon overnight. Combing the development context of literary history, it can be found that the pathological narrative and disease metaphor are always buried in the grass snake gray line buried in the writer's pen, only by placing the coordinates in the overall development process of Chinese literature can we speak more objectively about the pathology, only by returning to the history of Chinese literature and the core of traditional culture for retrospective rheological investigation, and combining the specific historical, cultural and social contexts at the end of the 20th century to reveal its "modernity" characteristics, can we more accurately grasp the rich cultural and historical connotations contained in the pathological narrative. Perspective on the hidden reality motives and contemporary considerations behind its periodic reproduction, and better clarify the multiple constructions of the writer's pathological discourse and its complex emotional orientation in the new period.
The traditional aesthetic complex and cultural core of "pathological" writing
Lu Xun once mentioned two special people with great wishes in "Miscellaneous Talks After Illness": "One is that he wishes that all the people in the world will die, leaving only himself and a good-looking girl, and one who sells large cakes; the other is willing to be thin in autumn and vomit half a mouthful of blood, and the two waiters are supported and go to the front of the stairs to see the begonias." "The two outline different ways of life, one yearning for a rather traditional and mediocre food life, and the other looking forward to the bitter but elegant literary tone. The "half mouth of blood" that spits out not only shows the melancholy and sickly weakness of the talent, but also does not make it difficult to maintain a leisurely and quiet and elegant taste because it is not difficult to maintain a leisurely and quiet taste, and it seems that only with a sick flesh can it better highlight the sentimental and sad and proud literati temperament. This seemingly bizarre but "thoughtful" desire exposes the "morbid" complex in the bones of Chinese literati to the fullest, which not only affects and creates the special life perception and life ideals of traditional Chinese literati, but also projects it into their words, showing their eternal concern and preference for pathological themes.
Since the ancient literati Moke liked to use disease images in poetry and song to convey complex and profound emotional moods such as melancholy, bitterness, lovesickness, and sadness, such as Du Fu's "Thousands of Miles of Sorrow and Autumn Are Often Guests, More Than a Hundred Years of Illness Alone on stage" ("Ascending"), Liu Zongyuan's "Guests have hometown garden thoughts, Xiao Xiang is born of night sorrows." Sick in the living room, dreaming around the Yuren Qiu" ("Reward Lou Xiucai Lived in kaiyuan Temple Early Autumn Moon Night Illness See Mail"), all lamented the desolate evening scenery of wandering and helplessness and the sadness of living in a foreign country with the sad image of illness and sorrow. Lu You's "sick bones are separated from the yarn hat wide, and the lonely minister Wanli Ke Jiang Gan." The humble did not dare to forget the worries of the country, and things must still be waited for the coffin" ("Sick Book Huai"), borrowing the image of the sick body emaciated and difficult to support the yarn hat, expressing the pain and anxiety of being degraded to the distant suburbs and unable to serve the country. Li Yu's "haggard years are even worse, and depression hurts oneself." The wind threatens to invade the sick bones, and the rain is sad. Night Ding only decoction medicine, towards the hair half stained frost. What is the precondition, who and ask the empty king" ("Feeling Sick and Nostalgic") more word by word, using the desolate and haggard situation in the illness to lament the depression of human affairs, family affairs, and state affairs, and in the midst of sorrow and illness, they issue a sad and painful question about the fate of the homeland.
Not only that, China has had a special preference for "sick beauties" since ancient times, and "Xizi Holding Hearts" is to describe the pathology of beautiful women. "Mo Dao does not lose his soul, the curtain rolls in the west wind, and people are thinner than yellow flowers" ("Drunken Flowers Yin, Misty Clouds And Sorrow Eternal Day"), "Sick Xiao Xiao two sideburns, lying down to see the remnant moon on the window screen." Cardamom is fried in boiled water, and there is no point in tea" ("Spreading The Huanxi Sand, Sick Xiao Xiao Two Sideburns"), etc., although it is intended to set off the desolate and lonely lovesickness with the sick situation and image, but the thinness of the person with the fiber of flowers and trees seems to add a beauty to the thin woman in front of the window. As for the Qing Dynasty novel "Dream of the Red Chamber", it created a classic "sick beauty" image of Lin Daiyu. The preference of "sick beauty" has exerted a profound aesthetic influence on the romantic literary creation that emerged in the later modern literary stage, and Yu Dafu's depictions of the sick in works such as "The Vast Night", "Chi Guihua", "Mirage", and "Demise" all reveal a sense of appreciation and pity for the sick beauty.
It can be seen that whether from the perspective of aesthetic ideals or creative practice, the preference for pathology seems to have long been precipitated into a national collective cultural psychology. The pain of the flesh carries and conveys the delicate and complex thoughts and emotions of the writer, the weakness and emaciation of the sick body set off the inner worries and sorrows of the literati about the country and the fate of the world, and the sick appearance adds a wisp of sadness to the literati's wind and bone melancholy. The image of disease not only gradually evolved into a literary strategy for the ancient literati to express and speak, but also deeply affected the exploration of the metaphorical meaning and literary function of the disease by later generations, and the frequent interlacing of the identity of the literati and its pathological image more invisibly established a subtle cultural imagination and aesthetic orientation. The elegance, arrogance, melancholy and weak temperament of the literati dilute the pain of the sick in the physiological sense and are given a special cultural meaning, forming a peculiar "sick" aesthetic or "sick" aesthetic complex.
However, with the changes in the history of the times and the changes in the mentality and stance of the literati, the pathological cultural core and metaphorical meaning of the modern Chinese literary stage have undergone important development and subtle adjustments, and the pathology has condensed a thick cultural metaphorical meaning and cultural criticism in addition to the aesthetic category. In a sense, the occurrence of new Chinese literature stemmed from the subjective will of people of insight at that time to "cure" the chronic diseases of the country, society, and nation. Under the discourse system of the May Fourth Enlightenment, modern writers invariably cast their pens on the devastated feudal society and its pathological life, and created a large number of sick characters who have suffered a lot with tragic colors and reflective criticism. For example, the madman who suffered from persecution paranoia in Lu Xun's "Diary of a Madman", the leprosy patient in "Medicine" and "The Lonely", the A Q with a leper scar on his head in "The True Biography of Ah Q", and Kong Yiji who broke his leg in "Kong Yiji". The portrayal of pathological characters in the literature of this period not only stays in the analysis of pathological conditions at the medical level, but also carries the reflection of intellectuals on Chinese social culture and history and the analysis of national nature, and the description of individual physiological and psychological pathologies is regarded as a metaphor and representation of national and national diseases. The prophets of enlightenment and salvation regard society as sick, and prescribe medicine for the diagnosis and treatment of social diseases in the form of literature, "when literary works cannot be separated from the socio-cultural context and are in it, the flesh will be in the center of the huge network of social culture, and the body symbols will often become a window for mapping social culture." They regard literature and art as a sharp weapon for diagnosing the chronic diseases of the nation-state and curing the spiritual culture of the people, and they are eager to examine and dissect the inferior roots and spiritual tumors of the nation with the scalpel of literature. This Lu Xun-style "national doctor complex" deeply influenced the pioneers of the May Fourth generation of enlightenment, precipitated as a very important literary creation psychology for modern Chinese writers, in Cao Yu's "Beijingers", Ba Jin's "Cold Night", "Annihilation", Shen Congwen's "Three Three", "Eight Juntu" and Zhang Ailing's "Golden Lock", "Complaining Girl" and other works can read the cultural criticism and reflection behind the diagnosis and treatment of human pathology. This literary practice has shaped a large number of classic characters and rich and novel disease images, which have had a profound impact on the pathological literary narrative and text interpretation since the new era.
The practical motives and consideration of the times for "pathological" writing in the new era
The aesthetic tendencies and metaphorical meanings carried by pathological writing in modern and contemporary Chinese literature are not static, and with the changes and adjustments of political and cultural contexts in different periods, pathological portrayals also present different meaning connotations and emotional attitudes. In the era of internal and external troubles in the early May Fourth period, the pathology expressed in literature had obvious social metaphorical significance, pointing to the criticism of the feudal social system, culture and etiquette, examining the potential "diseases" of the state, society and national nature, and having a strong sense of enlightenment and salvation and social responsibility. At the same time, the works of romantic writers represented by Yu Dafu showed a tendency to aestheticize diseases, and the pathological writing of literature was closely related to the subjective consciousness and thoughts and emotions of writers. In the 1940s, the domestic situation became increasingly severe, and the triumph of collective discourse and revolutionary reason over the individualized romantic imagination gradually dissolved the aesthetic meaning covered by the pathology. After the founding of New China, the ideological color of contemporary literature has become more and more intense, and the "patient" has even become a synonym for the reform laggards, ideological backwards, weak political consciousness and negative figures, morbid writing has evolved into a political diagnosis dominated by ideology and class theory, and literary works and authors have become political "doctors" who expose "diseases" and heal "diseases". Although the pathological writing faded its original aesthetic orientation and multicultural critical connotation in the high-pressure environment of the 1950s and 1970s, and simplified it into a political metaphorical image, in the period of socialist revolution and construction that advocated the shaping of "socialist newcomers" and "contemporary heroic images", the shaping of such pathological characters obviously still did not meet the overall ideological and aesthetic requirements of the people's literature and art. This situation has changed since the 1980s, when the reproduction of pathological narratives in literary creation in this period not only contains the inheritance of the discourse resources of the disease narrative in the May Fourth period, but also gives rise to more new semantic references and metaphorical connotations with the changes in the social and cultural environment of the times. Importantly, the re-energization of pathological narratives since the new era is inseparable from the adjustment of the policy environment, cultural environment, and literary discourse mode at that time.
After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, the adjustment of literary and art policies and the loosening of literary regulations directly affected the transformation of the literary atmosphere in the new period, and literary and art workers gained more independent consciousness and expression space to a certain extent, objectively providing a guarantee for the policy and cultural environment for the re-activation of pathological writing, so that the pathology of literature gained a broader semantic space. At the same time, the social and cultural thinking of this period also underwent major changes. On the one hand, intellectuals have been able to regain their names after getting rid of the situation of "transformed objects", and the transformation of identity and environment has given them the opportunity to regain their voice, and they have shown the alienation of human nature, moral decline, and physical emotions caused by political turmoil in their creations such as scar literature, reflective literature, and reform literature. On the other hand, the cultural and political dynamics formed by the ideological emancipation movement promoted the emergence of the "New Enlightenment" movement, and intellectuals regained the perspective of enlightenment to a certain extent. The recurrence of the pathological narrative of this period does not mean the emergence of "disease", but the exposure of "disease", which is a re-examination of people's past history and current life. It is precisely because the enlightenment of thought has given people a pair of eyes to see "diseases", and people look back at the times and societies in which they once lived before they find the existence of those pathologies. Therefore, the literary creation of this period often has a strong sense of reflection on the diagnosis of "disease".
At the end of "Furong Town", Wang Qiuyu, who was once a sports root, was reduced to a madman who shouted gongs and shouted on the streets in "the sad and lamentable end of the times", and his madness was not a simple political tragedy, but also a life tragedy caused by the turbulent social environment. What crushed him was not only the incomprehensible changes of the times, but also the collapse of ideals and beliefs, and even the self-division caused by the subversion of world outlook, values, and outlook on life. Although the adjustment of political policies can cure the "disease" of history, it has not cured the "disease" of thought and human nature. In a way, morbid madness is actually a mental illness and mental pain that cannot wake up. With the disintegration of collective life and the fading of idealistic political myths, political consciousness and political life in this period no longer occupied and dominated people's thoughts and lives, and the once political discourse and grand historical narrative quickly withdrew from the center of people's vision. The literary creation of this period as a whole formed a distinct creative tendency, that is, individual discourse replaced collective discourse, and grand narratives were deconstructed by secularized daily life and even fragmented imagery expressions. The pathological narrative in literary works no longer focuses only on the political "sick" who need to be treated and taught, but goes beyond the "class theory" to return to the human being itself, focusing on the thinking of the human heart, human nature, and human feelings.
In the literature of the 1950s and 1970s, illness was transformed into a symbol of backward thinking, negative action, and even opposition to social expectations, while literary narrative evolved into a set of ideological discourses that cured "disease", defeated "disease", and shaped "new people", while the reappearance of pathological narrative in the 1980s was significantly different from the disease writing in previous literary creations. The ideological emancipation and personality liberation advocated during this period brought the value of the individual back to people's vision, literature paid more attention to the individual living state and mental state, and the pathological narrative of literature no longer followed the discourse mode of overcoming disease, overcoming disease and eliminating disease in the past, but began to seriously examine the pain, humiliation, embarrassment and injustice caused by disease, and examined the misfortune of personal life and fate caused by the sick era and environment. The pathological narrative no longer focuses on the zeitgeist that transcends the individual, but begins to describe the pain of the individual and the family brought about by the disease in a real and heavy way. Therefore, in this period, there will be many more solemn and even sad and gloomy pathological narratives, which are essentially concerned about "people" and respect for individual life experience and life destiny.
The multiple constructions and emotional orientation of "pathological" discourse in the new era
As Susan Sontag explains in her book The Metaphor of Disease, illness at the physiological level is indeed a natural event; but at the cultural (or literary) level, it has always been loaded with a certain amount of moral criticism and value judgment. Since the new period, the pathological writing in literary creation is not intended to be an objective and scientific medical description of the physiological and psychological diseases of the characters, and the writer's understanding and diagnosis of the "disease" is often carried out through historical, social and cultural reflection, and the pathological image and conceptual category created in the text have become a cultural construction with the participation of multiple social factors. Thus, when the author connects the disease with historical reflection, social criticism, and cultural imagination outside the body, the disease is not just a simple physiological state, but a metaphorical image that leads to a deep theme. "The writer adds a certain literary imagination to the disease through metaphor, to give it some other additional meaning. In an implicit way, project your own life experiences and emotional experiences into your creation. The three most common types of pathological writing are pathological metaphors about history, pathological metaphors about culture, and pathological metaphors about society.
(1) Pathological writing as a metaphor for history
Pathological metaphorical writing with the theme of historical reflection mainly appears in the scars, reflections, and reform literature of the early new era, as well as in the literary narratives that unfold around the historical memory of the "Cultural Revolution" in the later period. The literary creation of this period is in a slow adjustment and transition stage, and it is still difficult to get rid of the previous narrative resources and methods in a short period of time, and it is still mainly based on the historical memory and historical trauma of the "Cultural Revolution" period. The long-term blockade of cultural thought and the assimilated collective life experience have led to the relatively single literary discourse of writers, and more importantly, the heavy historical trauma composed of national suffering and individual suffering has long been internalized as an important part of the intellectuals' life experience and perception, and the reflection on history and the catharsis of suffering naturally become the ideological and emotional core of the pathological writing of literature in this period.
In the novel "Who Am I", Zong Pu created a protagonist who experienced political criticism and social exclusion and insane, and her extreme desire to be recognized and accepted by society caused her to constantly fall into self-denial and doubt, and eventually caused serious insanity due to self-identity disorder. In "1986", Yu Hua also portrays a history teacher who is tortured and goes mad, ostracized and forgotten by society, lovers, and children, and the violence of history not only destroys his flesh, but also destroys his spirit, and the novel's bloody portrayal of physical self-harm actually reflects the psychological and spiritual torture inflicted on the characters. "Madness" is a common image of illness in the pathological narratives of the new era, and the writer conveys people's questions about history with exaggerated and absurd psychological states and behavioral performances. Madness is both a rebellion against the real world and a helpless escape and self-isolation after disappointment. As Fromm put it, "The most normal person is the sickest person, and the sickest person is the healthiest person." In the patient, we can see that something that belongs to human nature has not yet been suppressed to the point where it cannot be opposed to the various cultural patterns." The use of the image of madness is by no means a simple curiosity presentation, madness is the most powerful question of history and human nature issued by the crazy words of the weak, and it is also the author's critical reflection on history.
(ii) Pathological writing as a cultural metaphor
The pathological metaphorical writing with the theme of cultural reflection runs through Modern and Contemporary Chinese literature, and the cultural reflection of pathological writing in the literature of the new period is also a continuation and development of the critical thinking of May Fourth culture to some extent. On the one hand, the literature of the new period, especially the literature of seeking roots, clearly shows special attention to traditional culture and national culture, and while the writer re-explores the value of traditional culture, he also exposes the muddy and rigid cultural dross. Han Shaogong's "Daddy and Daddy" analyzes the "inferior roots" left over from the national culture from a critical perspective, and the stupid and small protagonist of the novel, Bing Cub, always looks like a strange appearance with no eyes and sluggish behavior, and when he sees people, he will only say "Daddy" and "× Mom" to express joy and anger. However, such a white-eyed and ridiculed C cub was once worshipped as "C Xianggong", "C Uncle C", and even "C Immortal" because of the villagers' superstition. Like the C-cub, the attitude of the villagers of Jitou Village to the world seems to be only a very simple mood and anger, joy is devout worship, and evil is slapped with white eyes. The ignorant and backward superstitious thinking and the simplistic way of thinking and emotions make the villagers of Jitouzhai form a subtle echo and contrast between the sick and stupid C cub, "the stubbornness of the C cub is to a certain extent the representative of the stubbornness of the group in which he is located, and the stubbornness of the group supplements, enriches and perfects the individual of the C cub, and to a large extent, the C cub is annotated." Sick and not dead C cub is a scar that cannot be cured in Chicken Head Village, but also a cultural metaphor symbol with strong symbolic meaning, and the continuous continuation of "Daddy daddy and daddy" in the mouth of Chicken Head Zhai baby cubs is reflecting the author's reflection and exposure on the dregs of traditional culture and the inferiority of the people. The shaping of a large number of idiotic characters in the new period of vernacular literature also expresses the author's metaphors and thoughts on traditional culture, these character images themselves symbolize the pathological and absurd parts of traditional culture with their non-normalized behavior and thoughts, and witness and tell the decline and shrinkage of traditional culture through their special perspectives, and show the embarrassing and embarrassing situation of traditional culture in modern rural society with their "mutilated" and "sick" bodies and images.
The portrayal of pathological characters in the literature of the new era not only carries the critical reflection of the writers on traditional culture, but also brews up the profound concerns of intellectuals about the contemporary cultural situation and humanistic spirit. In his novel "Waste Capital", Jia Pingwo portrayed the image of a group of modern "cultural patients" in the wave of market economy at the end of the century, and exposed the unbearable "chicken feathers in one place" behind the appearance of his "cultural celebrity" with the trivial daily life of the protagonist Zhuang Zhidi's family, friendship and love life. The physical dysfunction he showed in front of his wife was actually a metaphorical expression of the "loss of power" Chinese in real life, and his spiritual bitterness and inner anxiety could only be comforted and discharged in the utopian feast full of carnal desires of lovers, who cured the inferiority and loss of this "cultural patient" abandoned by the tide of the times with adoring eyes, praiseful words and beautiful flesh, so that he regained a kind of male self-confidence and cultural identity value. Behind Zhuang Zhidi's physiological pathology reflects the author's diagnosis of the "disease" of intellectuals' mental distress and confusion at the end of the century, and the pathology of body and spirit is given a metaphorical connotation of cultural reflection, conveying the writer's introspection and reflection on the spiritual and cultural conditions of contemporary Chinese society.
(3) Pathological writing as a social metaphor
Although the wave of modernization of reform and opening up has enabled China to experience social, economic, cultural and other changes and transformations, bringing about new production and living relations, at the same time, a series of new social problems have inevitably emerged. The sensitivity and sense of responsibility of literary scholars prompt them to use words to capture and record the trivial faces left behind by this high-speed passing train of the times, and their portrayal of sick characters is not only a simple literary metaphor or political symbol, but also more practically related to people's life experience and survival reality in real life, conveying the writer's thinking on the current social situation and social problems, and the keen observation and care of individual physiological and psychological states.
Pathological metaphorical writing with the theme of social reflection emerged in the literary creation of the late new period, and the connotation of pathological metaphors was relatively complex and diverse. This includes reflections on urban planning issues, such as the depiction of Qing'er falling ill due to the destruction of the land in the old garden in "Old Land"; the concern for the living conditions and psychological states of marginalized groups, such as the double squeeze of the urban underclass and vulnerable groups suffered by the urban underclass and vulnerable groups in the form of inconvenience and discrimination due to leg diseases in "The Age of Tattoos"; lamenting the shrinking vitality of the countryside, such as "Gao Laozhuang" alluding to the loss of rural resources and the decline of civilization with the disability of newborns. The shortness and ugliness of the villagers' appearance and the weakening of reproductive ability hint at the shrinking and degeneration of rural vitality; the criticism of the spiritual emptiness and desire supremacy of modern urban life, such as "Rice" and "Poppy House" criticize the chaos and degeneration of the city through the protagonist's infection with sexually transmitted diseases after entering the city, and "White Night" compares the shrinkage of organs and bodies to the flesh of urban people who are devoured by appetite, sexual desire and power... Cancer, paralysis, scleroderma, cerebral hemorrhage, hemorrhoids, appendicitis, scabies and other rich and complex physiological disease images were widely used in the writers of this period on the modernization of Chinese society, that is, urbanization, industrialization and other metaphorical thinking and pathological writing; and depression, anxiety, fantasy, phobia, nocturnal wandering and other psychological or psychiatric disorders are used as metaphors for the distortion and alienation of people's hearts under the suppression of the modern social environment, reflecting the confusion and division of people's self-perception under the background of urban-rural division and rapid modernization. As Susan Sontag puts it, "The disease metaphor is used to blame social repression, not social imbalance." From time to time they appear in the romantic rhetoric of opposing the mind and the brain, the impulse and the reason, the nature and the artificial, the countryside and the city."
Writers obviously enlarge the body as a symbol of the whole society, using the pathological disorders of the body, internal organs, emotions, and psychology to metaphorically describe the internal organizational structure, resource allocation, and potential confrontation, conflict and disorder in the living environment, and the concern for social diseases implies the writer's perception of the current situation and psychological state of contemporary social groups. The writer uses the portrayal of the sick image to expose the embarrassing and difficult living conditions and mental states of contemporary people, and the more profound social crux looms behind the pathological representations of the characters' physiology and psychology. Whether it is the representation of physical diseases or the manifestation of psychopathy, the pathologies presented in the literary works of this period are intended to arouse people's vigilance about potential problems in the current social living environment, and only by going beyond the disease itself to interpret the social context behind the pathology can we truly find an effective "cure" for its "disease".
The pathological narrative of the May Fourth period is intended to use literary enlightenment to evoke "healthy" "new people" in order to realize the grand ideal of national salvation and national rebirth. In contrast, since the new era, writers have to a certain extent departed from the special era context of salvation and survival, and the reproduction of literary pathological narratives stems more from the author's concern for "people" themselves. His metaphorical writing on physical diseases and psychological pathologies is often based on a keen capture of social problems and social emotions in the new era, revealing delicate observation and thinking about the individual's pathological living conditions and mental conditions in society. Therefore, if the pathological narrative of the May Fourth period is intended to "cure" the "disease" of the country and the nation to the diagnosis and treatment of the "stubborn disease" of the national nature, then the pathological narrative since the new period is more focused on using the "pain" of individual survival to seek to face up to and reflect on the current social reality, and to expose the difficulties and paradoxes that lurk in history, culture and society through the pain and repression endured by people at the physical and spiritual levels.
Limitations of the "morbid" narrative of the new era
Since the new era, the recurrence of literary pathological narratives has brewed in the context of complex times and changes, and literary discourses about "disease" and "healing" are often transformed and given special historical, cultural and social reflection connotations. Disease is not only a medical expression of diagnosis or physiological experience, but also rises to a literary symbol and metaphorical image with the author's subjective value judgment and attitude position. As Vera Polet put it, "The basic experience of illness acquires in literature an expressive function and meaning that transcends ordinary experience." In the literary medium, the linguistic work of art, the phenomenon of disease contains other meanings, much richer than it does in the real world."
Many researchers have put forward many reflective understandings of the phenomenon of pathological writing in literature in the new period, such as He Yubo's belief that compared with the anxiety and bitterness of Lu Xun's dissection of the "national" pathological symptoms, the pathological writing in Mo Yan's works lacks pain and anxiety, sentimentality and excitement, and has become a vassal of the spirit of the current era. He Li and Jin Xinlai were keenly aware that the differences between Yu Hua and Lu Xun in their pathological writing lay in "the way in which social diseases are exposed, the degree of effort devoted to understanding the 'patient', and the different attitudes when encountering nihilistic consciousness." Some scholars have pointed out that the body narrative and pathological writing of the "post-70s" female writers lack the necessary sense of reflection, "their physical narrative not only inherits the ruthless exposure of ugliness by their predecessors, but also develops it into a way of writing that avoids the sublime and pursues individuality that is unique to them", "They are no longer indignant about ugliness, but are replaced by indifferent taste and calm appreciation, and even contain a show of off to meet people's deformed needs."
In some literary works of the new period, there are indeed problems such as the abuse of disease imagery and the over-interpretation of aesthetic and even spectacle. The generalization of pathological narratives has two extreme consequences. On the one hand, it leads to the solidification of the metaphorical connotation of disease imagery, that is, the repeated disease imagery in literary works is gradually internalized into a modeled literary expression, and then a "symptomatic" literary writing and interpretation process is developed. The most common is that literary works often use cancer to accuse the invasion and oppression of the city and the countryside, use tuberculosis to map the conflict between people's inner emotions and reason, condemn the loss of morality and ethics and the flood of desire with venereal diseases, and accuse society of alienation and distortion of people with mental disorders- etc. - constructing a relatively fixed collocation between disease imagery and metaphorical connotations, which not only invisibly limits the imagination space and interpretation space of authors and readers for pathological writing. At the same time, it also reduces the sensory impact and creative vitality brought about by the pathological writing of literature.
On the other hand, the excessive "favor" of the writer for the image of the disease also unconsciously causes the "hollowing- out" of the metaphorical connotation, that is, an unconscious "pathological" writing driven by the literary creation trend of the times and the inertia of personal disease writing, so that the disease image is reduced to a literary creation strategy and even a creative habit that has been hollowed out of the meaning connotation and emotional attitude. This situation is especially common in the works of writers with special disease complex preferences such as Jia Pingwo, whose pathological narrative not only stems from reflection on history and reality, but also closely related to personal disease experience, and some of the diseases frequently involved in Jia Pingwo's works include scabies, hemorrhoids, hepatitis, malaria, etc. These rich and complex types of diseases and high-frequency disease image writing are not all based on a rigorous and rational literary consideration, which is inevitably directly affected by the writer's personal interest preferences, staged physiological and psychological states, their own experiences and life experiences, so that many disease images in the text are ultimately reduced to redundant details or unnecessary plots due to the lack of certain emotional and meaningful connotations. The large repetition of this disease imagery and the "hollowing out" of the metaphorical connotation will undoubtedly confuse the reader's reading and the critic's interpretation, and even lead them to believe that the writer is a lack of imagery or abuse of imagery.
In general, the pathological narrative of literature in the new period is not a simple continuation of the traditional metaphorical writing mode of the modern literary stage, and the changes in the political, cultural and social environment of the times have made the pathological narrative of this period present many new characteristics and vitality, but at the same time, it has also brought new writing phenomena and problems such as disease-free groaning and seeking sensory stimulation. How to balance, adjust, guide or accept the recurrence of literary pathological narratives since the new era, and how to view the significance and limitations of the existence of pathological narratives in the new period, will directly affect our literary interpretation and value judgment of the works of relevant writers. In the 1990s, the Times discussed "British fiction and disease writing", arguing that "if the novel is 'sick', then society must be sick." We should not expect our writers to teach us anything, what we need is for them to put up a mirror in front of us with fiction." Although the pathological narrative of literary works is full of descriptions of physical diseases, psychological pathologies, and behavioral perversions, it inevitably leads to controversy among critics about the author's pathological literary concepts and the meaning of pathological writing, and even rises to question and criticize the author's own social concepts and value positions. But in this regard, Jia Pingwa, who has always been good at introducing "diseases" into the article, said that the pathology of literature is actually rooted in the pathology of society, the pathology of the times, and the pathology of culture: "We make literature, especially at this time, and there are always criticisms in society that there are too many dark things in our works and too many themes of criticism." There are too many contradictions, conflicts, absurdities, and anxieties in the society of the great transition period, and of course there are too many exposés, criticisms, doubts, and questions in literature, and such a variety of writers is born in this era, and writers of such a variety will inevitably have such a variety of works. The "disease" of the novel is in the table, and the "disease" of society is at the root. The pathological writing in literary works should not only reflect the humanitarian concern for survival, but also carry the author's serious sense of social problems and moral responsibility. Only by aligning the dispenser and the blade at the abscesses and lesions can those painful and heavy appearances of the disease be truly cut open.
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