Editor's Note
Creation and criticism, such as the wings of a bird, the axle of a car. The development of literary creation is inseparable from the prosperity of literary criticism and the efforts of generations of literary critics. In 1998, the Southern Literary Circle launched the "Critics Today" column, which has introduced more than 100 critics so far. Critics of different personalities speak "my view of criticism" with their sharpness, talent, and agility, and hundreds of articles have accumulated to form a sensitive, vivid, and full of vitality and talent.
Now the China Writers Network has re-launched these articles to share with you, so stay tuned.
Critics of the day
Fang Wei (Filmed in 2012)
Fang Wei, male, born in 1976, from Binzhou, Shandong. Doctor of Literature, Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, Young and Middle-Aged Academic Leader of Qinglan Talent Project, Jiangsu Zijin Cultural Talents, First Visiting Researcher of China Museum of Modern Literature, Member of China Writers Association, Second "Youth" Contracted Writers, Shandong's First Batch of Contracted Critics, Published Literary Theory, Criticism, Poetry and Novels in "Xinhua Digest", "People's Congress Photocopied Materials", "Novel Monthly", "Novel Monthly", "Novel Monthly" and so on. Reprinted in periodicals such as "Selected Novels" and "Works and Controversies", the novel was selected into the 2016 Novel Ranking and the 2018 Literary Ranking. Academic works such as "The Biography of Wang Xiaobo" (Sanlian Bookstore), "The Temptation of Scenery" (Peking University Press), the novel "Hero's Age", "Blood Mozart", the poetry collection "Looking up at the Stone of the Moonlight", the novel collection "Tongue Hunter", etc., won the Bronze Award of the 19th World Poets Conference, the Third Mao Dun Literary Newcomer Award, the National Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Nomination Award, the China Television Golden Eagle Award Art Paper Award, the Liu Xun Literary and Art Theory Award, the Shandong Outstanding Social Science Achievement Award, the Jiangsu Excellent Literary Criticism Award, the Hundred Flowers Literature Award, Purple Mountain Literature Award, Contemporary Writers Review Excellent Paper Award, etc., presided over 4 national social science fund projects and provincial and ministerial projects, visiting scholar of Soochow University in Taiwan, and currently teaches at the School of Literature of Soochow University.
My view of criticism
Confessions of Criticism
Fang Wei
Hillis Miller in Literature Dead? "The flourishing of literary theory marks the death of literature. For for something that is deeply embedded in your culture, only by retreating into the depths of history can its death be clearly seen. "The reason for the death of literature is that literature, a secular dream, has been replaced by film, television and the Internet. The role of literature as a nation-state narrative in instilling civic ethics in citizens has also been slowly replaced. Therefore, according to Miller, literary criticism is nothing more than a beautiful weed on some dead body, and although it looks good, it will eventually die.
I really don't agree with that. True literature is not a moral position, a gesture, or a concept, but a process of presentation of the inner spiritual world of man. Whether we write epic wars of hundreds of thousands of people or a spring dream of a little nanny at night, literature tries to save us from the clichéd world and give us a real inner life. In this regard, it is impossible for movies, television and the Internet to do so. Because the biggest difference between audio-visual media and text media may not be that as Henry Miller said, text media is a low-level dreamer, but that text media has the imagination of "spiritual world" because of the interval of symbol codes. Kundera once said: "The historical meaning of an art is opposed to the historical meaning." The history of an art, by virtue of its own characteristics, is man's revenge on the history of the impersonal human race. "To taste literature is bliss, and this happiness comes from understanding a fictional dream world that "seems to be fake or real." We do not expect to be educated, or moved, but in the empire built by words, there is the truth in the depths of our souls. Good literary criticism should also become the antithesis of history, not a subservient slave. All interpretations of the text should be open in both external and inner dimensions—the inner dimension lies in the depth in which it reveals the self, and the outer dimension in which it reveals the depth of the relationship between the self and the world.
Therefore, the essence of literary criticism lies in being a "discoverer of beauty and power." The so-called discoverer must maintain the humility of the heart for the good literary works themselves, and maintain a low-key inquiry and persistent curiosity about everything that is fresh and interesting, energetic, meaningful, intelligent, imaginative, beautiful, and loving. Wisdom here cannot be equated with intelligence. The judgment of intelligence is a judgment of pure reason, while the judgment of wisdom contains rich elements of human nature and beauty. These finders were destined to be some walkers. He stopped and walked, or watched as he walked, and they were good at observing all the scenery on both sides of the road, feeling the weeping of the dewdrops on each grass, stroking the flowing white clouds and the brilliant sunset. Their purpose is not at the end of the journey, but only in the process of wandering. Because for them, the text is always a rich, complex and simple and lovely, open dream world. The end of all self-righteousness is nothing more than the starting point and new possibilities of another journey.
Herodotus' History describes "happiness" as follows: "The philosopher Solon met with the Lydian king Cloesus and explained what happiness was. One was a heroic death, the other was two brothers, and finally died together. Happiness is about having the most and staying there until death. "As literary critics, not as a warrior, what is our happiness? What are we probably the most that we may have and can sustain until the end of our lives? Perhaps, death is not a process. It is nothing more than a concrete and ephemeral event for the individual. For literary criticism and literature, it is the accumulation of one "short-lived despair" after another, and we cannot deny the possibility of salvation and the possibility of happiness because of these short-lived despairs. I think the happiness of the critic is to associate knowledge with life, criticism with the heart, and text with the soul. We need to see the wounds on the writer's soul, the shame in the memory, the outburst of desire, the despair of decadence, and the unspeakable sorrow. We have to see how these things are expressed by the writer, we have to look at the breadth and depth of his spiritual level, to see the tranquility of his blue lake, and the anger of thunder. We need to recognize these things with our hearts, honestly and humbly, and express them in our own personalized language. This is our destiny.
The article was published in Southern Literature Journal, No. 1, 2012
Critic Impressions
Send jun a golden chair
Wang Fangchen
One
Last year, shortly after I came to Jinan to work, Fang Weijun invited me to give a lecture to his students. Although I was also a teacher, I had no choice but to retire from the podium for many years, and I had mouth ulcers, so if I wanted to talk about two classes at length, I was not very sure in my heart, and Fang Wei was an extraordinary teacher. Fang Wei saw my hesitation, and immediately persuaded me to talk about the creative experience and let the students understand literature emotionally... And this does have the meaning of watching cows and horses on the spot.
At this point, I was not good enough to push it any further, and a few days later I drew up a speech title. Fang Wei opened his mouth to recognize it. That afternoon, in front of a room full of students, I read the script, but I only felt that time passed too quickly, just like in the past, the students were naturally college students, but not much bigger, the classroom, the blackboard, also seemed to have been moved from the past, only a chair by the podium, let me be very surprised. The chair looks low and dilapidated, especially the unknown color of the chair, it looks like it is also bulging, and it is expected that it will flutter and fall as soon as it sits, and I can't help but casually laugh at this chair. Originally, I wanted to talk about "the facts in the novel", but in the end I still didn't let go, and I thought over and over again, how can the chair in the university look like it was picked up by the side of the road? How can a university teacher's chair be like this? What's more, how could this be Fang Weijun's seat?
But the joke is a joke, although the chair is old, it does not prevent Fang Wei and his colleagues from sitting on it and giving rain, and it should also be a period of demeanor.
Two
It's been about twenty years since I've been in such close contact with college. Although after twenty years, I have aged from heart to appearance, the sacred status of the university in my eyes has not diminished in the slightest. Indeed, Fang Wei is my friend. He's like this, he's busy, almost always busy, busy lecturing, busy reading, busy writing, busy with everyday things and things... I have to say that Fang Wei has extremely abundant energy, and diligence has become the norm of his life.
Three
Before I was transferred to Jinan, I had a thought of enjoying life. Because Fang Wei was alone in Jinan, more than once, I asked him to climb the mountain with a weekend companion, but unfortunately never made the trip, and he laughed and said", "Brother Wang is good to have Yaxing", and many of the mountain names in my mouth, he has not even heard of it, "lonely and unheard" Why is this! Now I no longer mention this matter, and if I mention it again, there is a suspicion that the plaything has lost its mind and lost time.
I work for a magazine. At the beginning of his term of office, for the sake of literature, a new review column was opened in the magazine, inviting six new literary critics in the province to make immediate comments on the creation of short and medium stories throughout the country, including Fang Weijun. Although I believe in the level of these six young critics, before I got the manuscript, I couldn't help but feel a little nervous in my heart, afraid that the column would fall out of sight and draw tiger dogs. Fang Weijun opened the cannon and delivered the manuscript on time, and the manuscript was as always, without losing its consistent writing and theoretical standards. In the next three consecutive issues, Fang Wei did a very meticulous and serious job, and sometimes even I felt embarrassed, thinking that reading so many works every month was almost a gold panning in the sand, which was a very bitter and bitter messenger. Just looking at the titles of his articles, such as "Feathers of the Night: The Sound and Dance of the Wind and Dance That Seem to Flow For Years", "Flying Gently in the Pure Sky", etc., I was extremely impressed. It's hard for him to think about it! I'm a writer, and I feel very hard, so how much brain plasma does he have to consume! That brain must not be dragged to the point of pain! How can that eye bear it!
In order to thank him and other friends for their hard work, I deliberately found a famous hall and invited them to the magazine to discuss the creation of novels in the first half of the country, with the intention of inviting them to a meal. Before that, I had not personally heard Fang Wei's live speech. For the first time, Fang Wei's poetic criticism did not come out of his mouth, not through the web page paper, as if a cup of tea, which simply made me smell intoxicated. Let's put it this way, except that I asked Fang Weijun to climb the mountain on the weekend, and I remember that he never had a time to shirk the delay. Fang Weijun never mistook things, and doing things is simply fast. In my opinion, Fang Weijun's brain is like a super juicer, as long as you need, you can always squeeze a pool of sweet juice from him at any time. That juice is wisdom, it is poetry.
Four
Usually, I also like to read some theoretical criticism articles, many of which have been turned over by me very old, which makes me believe that excellent literary criticism texts are also a kind of independent existence that is different from writers and works. Once, I was given a copy of a collection of review essays, and after reading it, I always felt that it was not too addictive. I hesitated three times to express this feeling to Fang Wei, who believed that to engage in literary criticism, it is necessary to have sufficient academic accomplishment. Think about it, well, pole is. Talent is important, but to go far on the road of literary theory criticism, academic cultivation should be the foundation. Without this foundation, it is easy to float. Wang Xiaobo is one of the few contemporary writers in China who has already experienced precipitation. Last year, Fang Weijun's Wang Xiaobo research monograph "Cultural Paradox and Literary Innovation: Wang Xiaobo in the Cultural Transformation at the End of the Century" came out. In Wang Xiaobo, I have found spiritual resonance, and in Fang Wei's monograph, this resonance is once again aroused. It made me feel like the yellow mud on the ground had been given a soul, transformed into a human being, and came together. Fang Wei said a lot of things, and those things were often sealed in the dirt. When he said these things, it also showed his extraordinary ambitions. On the contrary, it is precisely because of his extraordinary ambitions that he has all kinds of insights.
Fang Weijun has goods in his belly, and he has a heavy weight on hand, and literary criticism has obtained a poetic expression here, while staying away from hardship and obscurity, and presenting a vivid atmosphere. Similar to "life is never black and white, but full of all kinds of ambiguous possibilities, the light of life is also born from this" "The golden sunflower that remains in the memory, perhaps, just because it stays in the memory and is beautiful, when it comes to reality through the corpse, it will show the helpless background of life" This philosophical spiritual language can be described as everywhere in Fang Wei's many literary treatises. Fang Weizhi is from the academy and is not confined to the academy, I think, one is because of his extensive reading, and the other is because of his understanding, and he often has the inspiration given by the poetry god. In fact, Fang Wei is indeed a poet.
I know that Fang Weijun wrote poetry and wrote a large number of poems. I don't know yet whether he wrote poetry because he loved to write poetry, but I believe that just because one loves poetry, life will have a very different texture; just because a critic loves poetry, he will also keep his own criticism at a very high level. Over the years, Fang Weijun has also continuously published and published his own novel works... Compared to him, I think it is he who belongs to literature, not me.
Poetry, novels, and theoretical criticism, Fang Wei has three solid strongholds. The three go hand in hand, but in my opinion, the first two are nothing more than preparations for the latter, or Fang Wei's staircase to the majestic castle of literary criticism. Perhaps, this is also the fundamental reason why I look at Fang Weiwen and feel that it is not "separated".
Five
The abundance of Fang Weijun's involvement has always amazed me. In the winter, Fang Wei bought a house in Jinan, and finally ended sighing: "House! "Fang Wei has repeatedly and smugly boasted to me about his happy life in his house: there you can walk into the provincial library at any time... I also often hear Fang Wei talk about what good books he bought, and those titles are often the first time I have heard about them. Sometimes I can't help but think that this pile of books is not only said to be read through, but even the title of the book is not bad, it is also a great skill. In my novel, there is a detail. A woman falls in love with a poet and firmly remembers the name of the poet's poetry collection, many of whom are very difficult to speak. After the woman came to the love enemy like several family treasures, she couldn't help but cry.
Fang Wei did not cry. Fang Wei can casually and naturally say the titles of those books, unlike me, who has read the books and always forgets: "What is that book called?" It seems to say..." Fang Wei was familiar with these books, thinking, expounding, commenting... Fang Wei also constantly recommended some books to me: "You have to read these books!" "Some time ago, Fang Wei recommended me to read Montayou. After careful investigation, I found out why. And suddenly realized, is this Fang Wei reminding me? Can my Tazhen novel also be summarized as: about a small town in China from so-and-so to so-and-so years? Should I make an ambition to write all the secrets of the daily life of the town, including the residents, their personal privacy, and all kinds of contradictions and conflicts?
Six
Fang Wei insisted on this, year after year. I was very suspicious, and Fang Wei did not know the pain. I had heard him talk about his experiences in his youth and after his early years of work, and he said that it was difficult, but from his face, it did not seem to be saying difficulty. After the examination and research, the examination of the Doctorate, needless to say, is not so easy, he also seems not to think bitter. No matter where I saw him, he was happy.
Before I was transferred to Jinan, the living conditions at home were still good. Fang Wei went to my house and later said to me that it was like a "palace". I have to say that Fang Wei's imagination of the "palace" is very poor. When I came to Jinan, I also became a houseless household, and temporarily went to him to borrow a few days. I didn't expect that Fang Wei would rent a house like that that was similar to a rough house. There's an electric heater on in the bedroom, but when you leave the bedroom, it's like walking into an ice cave. Asked how he ate, he said, do. I didn't see any signs of cooking in the cold kitchen. You know how he sends his own three meals a day. In such an environment, Fang Wei often had to write until midnight. It is no wonder that Fang Wei slept very well, lying down and whirring until dawn, much like a person with no heart.
Later, I also sought a place to live. Fang Wei came to see the house, I invited him out to dinner, and he insisted on doing it himself at home. He didn't believe in my cooking skills and had to do it himself. Because there was no refrigerator, he first cut all the meat he bought and cooked it for later, and then cut the vegetables. The dish is zucchini. I was shocked to see him "click, click" and cut the zucchini into large pieces, because I thought the zucchini should be cut into even thin slices.
After a few days, I still made zucchini stir-fried meat in my own way, and my son had an opinion, saying, why don't you cook like Uncle Fang? Zucchini is only delicious when cut into pieces and stewed meat. Fang Weijun, from my son's point of view, it is time to be a "foodie"!
Seven
Fang Wei has a pleasing little problem and does not remember the road. I've been to my house many times and I still don't remember how to get there. He was coming to my house that day, and I told him again:
"Remember 67 Wenhua East Road. Turn left, turn right. ”
"Okay."
"Turn left, turn right."
Turn left and right. Turn left and right... It's here. Fang Weijun, did you see a golden chair? Well, that's yours.
(Wang Fangchen, Contemporary Fiction Magazine)
Read more
Impressions of a Critic
Zhang Yanling, Zhang Ping, editor-in-chief
Writers And Publishers September 2019
My View of Criticism
Guangxi Normal University Press, January 2016