To use the keyword "new highland" to mark the military literature in the new era, first of all, based on the new time and space coordinates, the new changes and new aspects of military literature in terms of ideological concepts, writing ethics, and writers' subjects. Entering the new era, with the all-round transformation of literary ecology, creative subjects, acceptance of evaluation, and aesthetic experience, where is the new expression method and narrative space of military literature? This is an urgent and important topic that plagues writers and critics, and it also accumulates the strength to move forward in the reform of military literature. As a direct response, the author planned and edited the "New Highland Military Literature Series", trying to explore the "personal" narrative in the grand historical background, emphasizing the "personal" imagination in the narrative, in order to expand and enrich the performance space, narrative dimension, discourse method and aesthetic style of military literature. This "personal" imagination, unlike the "personal" narrative of the 90s, highlights the back of the previous heroic and legendary discourse, that is, to restore and show more the existence and destiny of individual life under the shadow of the "historic" grand narrative. The first series of four novels (Zhang Qingguo's Song of the Eagle, He Hong's Great Westward Migration, Fu Ruxin's A Pond of Lotus, and Dou Starling's Total Defeat) have been published by Huacheng Publishing House.
As early as 2006, Huacheng Publishing House launched the "Kapok Red" long novel series, which included 12 military novels by 12 professional writers of the former Guangzhou Military Region, which had a wide impact inside and outside the military. 15 years have passed suddenly, and now, the former professional literary and artistic creation studio of the army has changed the way it exists and operates, and the group of professional writers in the military has also dispersed. In the process of reforming and strengthening the army, military literature is experiencing low tides and pains, and it is looking forward to the rebirth of feathering and regrouping. In this situation and background, Huacheng Publishing House launched the "New Highland Military Literature Series" in an attempt to set off and lead another wave of military literature in the new era. The title of the series "New Highland" conveys the identity and consciousness of editors and authors on new concepts and new methods, hoping that military literature in the new era can present new literary landscapes and climb to new literary heights.
Looking at the current military fiction creation, whether in terms of quantity or quality, the theme of war history still occupies the mainstream. Under the continuous influence of the "new historicism" trend, the creation of war historical novels and the literary tradition constructed by the seventeen years of "red classics" have become more and more alienated, and some have even subverted and deconstructed the orthodox, one-dimensional revolutionary history and dualistic ideological position described in the "red classics", and the creative subjects have begun to consciously explore the complexity of human nature and the contingency of history in the war situation, adding a certain fresh perspective and discovery to the previous one-dimensional revolutionary history - has been" The historicized" history of the revolution has suffered from literary reconstruction or reinterpretation.
From a literary point of view, grand narratives are of course the main body or mainstream of historical narratives, dominating social thought and the spirit of the times, and have produced many classic epic masterpieces. The reason why these masterpieces have become classics is precisely because the works do not ignore the individual life existence of ordinary people, and in the form of details that a large number of daily life experiences in war are preserved, which makes the grand and eerie historical narrative have touchable and perceptible flesh and blood. Why the military-themed novels in the "Red Classics" are still favored by the majority of readers is also because of the large number of real life details in the works. These details are the source of history, rich and real; they are the accumulation of soil and footsteps, and later mountains and thousands of miles are derived from them. That is to say, those fine waters and grains of sand may be closer to the historical essence, or an indispensable part of history. When the history of the Chinese revolution has not yet become a huge torrent, or has become a huge torrent, the complexity of man and the contingency of history should be a huge existence in the whole of revolutionary history, which constitutes the initial background of revolutionary history and to some extent affects the process and direction of revolutionary history. Time has changed, and when the torrent of the times gradually recedes, what is finally left is the boulder with a cold and hard bone feeling, and the fine water and sand grains that are rich in the temperature of life and the mood of life have long disappeared. Narrating or telling the truth of history, the writer must first make a bit of cowardice of "historicization", and many fractures and gaps may be found in the process. This provides a narrative space for serious writers who try to explore the true nature of history to salvage the rich existence of history and play a "personal" imagination.
For a long time, the epic grandeur is far more fascinating, and from that complete linear history and time frame, a clear and unambiguous value judgment can be drawn, and the boundary between the ordinary and the magnificent can be easily clarified, so as to obtain the respect for the heroic spirit. And those small personal experiences, those insignificant personal memories, can only be noticed and meaningful after they have been labeled as huge historical labels or become special news events. Although many writers emphasize individuality, they are invested in a writing trend in which experience is constantly being made public, a simplification of the texture of the times and the life of the individual. In many of today's war narratives (including, of course, film and television dramas), what we read (see) is an increasingly common simplification of the world. In fact, literature should rebel against simplification and forgetting, and its mission is to illuminate and protect the complexity and richness of the living world. Are there any other ways of existence and arrangements of fate for people in the course of war history, apart from the desperate life-and-death blow? What about the forbearance, burden, betrayal, and short-term sweet happiness and long-term sadness and pain that must be endured because of the firm orientation toward life? And how should those unforgettable but incomplete chaotic love end? All these, those hidden emotions that are either little known or habitually unaware, are ignored and obscured by rigid historical concepts and simplified narrative ethics.
The history of war is not only a vast river, but also a complex water system and a vast river basin. We tend to simply notice the final direction of the river and turn a blind eye to the tiny tributaries that either merge into or overflow the main channel. In Zhang Qingguo's "Song of the Eagle", those small people who participated in and witnessed the course of the war are left and right in the cracks of history, doing their best, silently bearing, and being injured all over the body. Zhang Qingguo tries to salvage the fragments of memory that are related to the fate of the individual and the history of the nation, and uses a gorgeous language that is full of poetry and poetry to stitch and weave a world of life full of ambiguity and philosophy, fresh and full of vitality. Set against the backdrop of the Liberation War, Fu Ruxin's "A Pond of Lotus" tells the daily life of Zhenhai Temple in Southern Liaoning and the ups and downs of the three sisters of the Lu clan; there are not only positive writings about the course of the war and the "quasi-frontline", but also cross-narratives of the "rear" of the battlefield, rural, township and urban scenes associated with "production" and "life", as well as vivid portrayals of daily experience and emotional entanglements; through the deep excavation of complex human nature and the delicate expression of the texture of local life, it reveals a poetic aesthetic style. He Hong's "The Great Westward Migration" shows another aspect of chaotic history, through the author's delicate combing from the desk to the field, the historical truth and life details can be surfaced. The iron-blooded westward migration of the Shanghai steel mill is reflected by the poignant story of the protagonist Zhang Fushu's family's happy reunion. Dou Starling's "Total Defeat" sinks into the deep experience and inner texture of the real life of the military, breaks the narrative routine of the growth of heroes in the past, and reflects the inner quality of the new high-quality soldiers and the new quality of the times in the delicate portrayal and mirror writing of the image of individual soldiers.
The four novels in the first series of the "New Highland Military Literature Series" do not belong to the world's big, but try to write the world's small. Each character and each life is an independent and complete world, with its own value and meaning. These truly blooming lives, rising and falling in the long river of the times, may eventually be invisible. But they have truly existed, loved passionately, lived unusually, fought and fought for the emotions, values, beliefs in their hearts, their lives deserve respect and discovery, and their fragments of memory need to be salvaged and stitched together.
However, this kind of salvage and stitching is extremely difficult for the current writers who are on the other side of history. The difficulty is that the creative subject should fully explore, effectively refine and summarize the historical fragments scattered in the shadow of "historicization"; the difficulty is to transcend the linear view of history and let the characters in different political camps undergo mutual seeing and trial of flesh, lifestyle, value judgment, and ideological spirit in the extreme situations and conflicts of war; the difficulty is that the creative subject conveys a more comprehensive understanding and deeper understanding of history based on the writing ethics of modernity, and then presents a new literary orientation and temperament The difficulty is to construct a literary experience with a sense of existence and speculation in the chaotic connection between fictional narratives and historical reality, and finally transcend the narrowness and limitations of history in a literary way.
History often emphasizes results, and even if there is a process, it is general. The novel compensates precisely for the more vivid details that history has missed or obscured. They are often wrapped up in the tide of revolutionary history, or go with the flow, or fight against the tide, which is a multi-faceted life and story. They tumble through the "revolution" according to their own logic, and the uncertainty of history and the contingency of the fate of individuals are like the back of a coin. Rethinking, interpreting and constructing the intricacies of history from another perspective, the possibilities and significance values in it will be greatly deepened and released.