Recently, the People's Literature Publishing House published professor Zhang Li's latest collection of essays and essays of Beijing Normal University, "Novel Landscape", which originated from Zhang Li, a professor at the College of Literature of Beijing Normal University, who opened a column entitled "Rereading Modern Chinese Stories" in Novel Review, which had a wide impact when published.
In this book, Zhang Li rereads Lu Xun's "Blessings", Yu Dafu's "Past", Shen Congwen's "Xiao Xiao", Xiao Hong's "Biography of Hulan River", Sun Li's "Lotus Pond", Mo Yan's "Red Sorghum", Yu Hua's "Alive", Tie Ning's "Stupid Flower"... From these familiar passages, we find the glimmer of fiction that we have not seen; explore the path of growth and innovation of writers, and think about how they have established their own style in the context of a century-old literary tradition. Through the subtle reading of the text, Zhang Li leads readers to re-understand the core propositions concerned by the history of modern and contemporary Chinese literature: the tradition of vernacular novels, the stylistic revolution, the changes in love discourse, the construction of Chinese national styles, and the formation of revolutionary lyrical aesthetics... Presents the internal aesthetic logic of the development of new Chinese literature in the past century.
Most of the chapters in Landscape of Fiction were published in 2021, but it is the product of Zhang Li's decade of literary education. In the past three years, Zhang Li has opened a "Guide to The Original Classics" course for graduate students at Beijing Normal University, and read the classic works of Chinese modern and contemporary literature with the graduate students. "I've heard lively discussions among young people in the classroom, and I've told them about my understanding, and I even think that those wonderful moments mean that these texts are no longer just texts in the depths of literary history, they also connect our present existence, and thus establish our emotional connection with them, the present and history," she said. In other words, I hope that through such literary practice, a 'literary reading' of our time will be established. ”
Professor Zhang Li, Beijing Normal University
In this book, Zhang Li presents many insights that span the era of texts, which are refreshing. "The most interesting thing about the theme of Yu Dafu's work is that it is not to write 'sex' but to write 'love', for this writer, the important thing is not to recognize the deceased, to recognize the lover, but to recognize the same kind; the important thing is to meet the suffering person as a suffering person, and to meet the frustrated person as a frustrated person."
She read "The Legend of Hulan River": "In "The Legend of Hulan River", even the most ordinary people have amazing energy to live. Xiao Hong's observation of the survival of the hulan river people is not only the observation of the May Fourth Enlightenment thought, but also the cognition from the perspective of the local people, and even her understanding of the overall survival of mankind: in the survival of the Hulan people, there are both people's helplessness, people's stubbornness, and people's superiority. She wrote about her understanding of revolutionary lyrical works: "Sun Li wrote the hearts of tens of millions of people with his personal voice, and as a result, 'one me' has also become 'public self', and the high degree of compatibility between 'one me' and 'public self' emotional and value orientation is the key to the success of excellent revolutionary lyric works." ”
As an expert who continues to pay attention to the field of women's literature, in this book, Zhang Li also uses this perspective to reinterpret Lu Xun's "Blessings", she observes the accusations of Xiang lin sister-in-law by women in the novel, in her opinion, "The reason why Liu Ma can occupy this condescending position and can stand in the perspective of judging others is that Xiang Lin and she both believe in the discourse system of women's martyrdom." "What does she talk about as feminine beauty?" In a sense, Tie Ning rediscovered the beauty of the female body, and she liberated the female body from the externalized label. These bodies are not for desire to see, but they are not used for exhibition, and the beauty of women in the iron condensation pen is the gaze, recognition, and acceptance of the self-body, self-confidence and ease, and is based on health and strength. ”
Sun Yu, a professor at Chinese Min University, said in his comments on Zhang Li's comments: When mediocrity dominates people's cognitive structure, the existence of critics shows its own meaning. Zhang Li soberly sees the blind spots of the times in some texts, and this is the starting point of her thinking.
In Zhang Li's view, every excellent novel and every classic text has its unique scenery and its secret entrance, which needs readers to discover, and the meaning of the novel landscape lies in this. Readers can also use this book to follow Zhang Li on a "text exploration journey" to discover the charming scenery in classic novels.
Nandu reporter Huang Qian