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.
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Critics of the day
Wang Xun (Filmed in 2013)
Wang Xun, born in 1976, Hubei Public Security, Doctor of Literature, Associate Professor, Deputy Editor. The fourth batch of visiting researchers of the Museum of Modern Chinese Literature, a member of the Residual Snow Research Society of Nihon University, is currently working in the Department of Chinese of Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics. He has published more than 200 papers in Xinhua Digest, Literature and Art Studies and other journals, and published 4 books, including "No Need to Wait for torchfire" and "Extreme Narrative and Dark Writing".
My view of criticism
The life dimension of literary criticism
Wang Xun
The first issue of literary criticism is the question of position. Interpreting the text from what position is an important criterion for judging the authenticity of literary criticism. I think that the most authentic literary criticism should stand on the aesthetic standpoint and invest in a rich life experience under this premise. Literary criticism based on aesthetic analysis can produce subversive persuasiveness. And this aesthetic analysis is still essentially a textual interpretation based on human nature and from life.
Critical writing is very pure writing. It excludes any worldly utilitarianism and listens only to the critic's own inner voice. The critic should be a sincere aesthetic sensationer, and his words point directly to the heart, the crystallization of the life experience in his aesthetic reading. Therefore, literary criticism cannot tolerate hypocrisy and hypocrisy, let alone succumb to any oppression from outside the subject of criticism. Harold Bloom admonished us: "Clear your mind of the hypocrisy of the Academy." He saw the pedantic hypocrisy and condescending style of contemporary criticism, and this style of criticism is the mainstream of the current criticism circle. Although I reject Bloom's extreme view that "reading for any ideology is equivalent to not reading at all", I am impressed by his life-devotion and professional vision to literary reading.
It is "marginal" critics like Bloom who inject more vitality into the ecology of literary criticism. Literary criticism is not a list and combination of academic vocabulary, but a poetic discourse based on life. Great literature often starts from life and casts a deep soul. And outstanding literary criticism is also full of the breath of life, with a soul scale. Those true criticisms that are full of emotion and pain can only come from the subliminal dialogue in the depths of the soul. This dialogue takes place mainly between the critic, the text, and the writer. The critic should be a sharp person who can both glimpse the subtle layers of the text and the deepest parts of the writer's soul. Only by gaining insight into the fission process of the soul in the writer's creation can the critic deeply understand the writer and truly grasp the core of the text. Therefore, only by visiting the park where Lindbergh once lived, to feel the body temperature of the fallen leaves on the ground, to listen to the crisp sound of running, to gaze at the stagnant water on the surface of the Swan Lake, the death of the old man in "Asia Park" shocked me more strongly, and the tragedy of spiritual destruction seemed so penetrating.
Bloom also advised us to engage in literary criticism, and the farther away from the academic environment, the better. I think that staying away from the academy is not the same as rejecting the scientific scale, although literary criticism is not academic research, but it is also indispensable to the mind of academic research. The emphasis on the scale of life does not mean abandoning the rational vision, but investing noble reason in the tension of an aesthetic experience. Great works of art always contain a sense of spiritual tearing, and deep literary criticism is often based on aesthetic feelings about this sense of tearing. In this process, the critic as a reader devotes his whole body and mind to the role of the play, and encounters soul struggles and inner torments with the writer.
Through intense reading, as long as you feel anxious about your own existence, it means that you have entered the deep world of the text. This kind of layered reading is not only a restoration of the writer's creative path, but more importantly, the obscured parts of the text are vaguely protruding.
Aesthetic discoveries in reading are often rooted in the critic's perusal of the text itself, accompanied by the tracing of the writer's artistic soul. The cracks and pain points in the writer's heart are often spied in this two-way communication. When reading Frog, we see the brutal scene of the writer's soul fighting. The author of "Frog" is a narrator composed of two Mo Yan superimposed, and the superposition is not a simple combination of two, which includes the process of confrontation, confrontation, and compromise. Just as Engels had a profound insight into Goethe's greatness and smallness, in his attitude toward the "aunt", we also found the contradictory position of the intertwining of temple and folk in the author's consciousness. The author's soul is divided into two personalities, one is Mo Yan in the world, and the other is Mo Yan as an artist, and it is the entanglement of these two Mo Yan that produces this novel.
The article was published in Southern Literature Circle, No. 2, 2013
Critic Impressions
An ascetic on the road of literary criticism
——Impression of Wang Xun
Qian Zhifu
In 2002, after I took my Ph.D. in Modern Chinese Literature, I went to work at the School of Foreign Languages of Ningbo University, and since then I have stepped on two boats in my work and academic research, engaged in English teaching and English language and literature research and comparative literature and comparative poetics research on the other hand, and engaged in modern Chinese literature research on the other hand. Knowing Wang Xun is the result of my stepping on two boats. Because I arrived at the School of Foreign Languages, if I only started with foreign languages, then I would be stillborn in modern Chinese literature, especially Chinese new poetry, which I had painstakingly loved and studied for more than ten years, and I could only eat at home and sleep at home at home while taking into account foreign languages and Chinese, so I had to write a lot of academic articles every year and participate in many academic conferences with difficulty. What about the cost of so many academic conferences? The college can not be funded every time, and the family is not rich, so with the least money to hold the most meetings, each meeting only take the hard seat train, especially the oldest green train, although tired, but at ease. When I checked in for the conference, I often demoted myself to a student, and I fought for sympathy in terms of membership fees to enjoy graduate treatment, and only paid half of it. Although it is hard and tiring to participate in the meeting at your own expense, you can learn a lot of things by communicating with peer experts, and you can also make a lot of friends with your peers, which is also a great joy in life.
In October 2005, I attended the annual meeting of the Zhejiang Provincial Association for the Study of Modern Chinese Literature held in Haining. After reporting and receiving the information, I began to ask the council if there was a cheap hotel nearby, so that I could drag my luggage and live in it to save a few dollars. "Yes, yes, it's nearby, not far away, teacher, I'm going to stay too, I'll go with you!" A slender young man spoke warmly to me. Along the way, I was kindly and enthusiastically guided by this young man, and I remember walking through a narrow passage, and we talked as we walked. He said that his name was Wang Xun, the king of the king, Lu Xun's xun, a graduate student of modern Chinese literature, and his tone was calm and gentle. Wang Xun gave me a good first impression, he was easy-going, kind and sensitive. We "lived together" for several days, and then went to the Salt Officer together to watch the tide of the Qiantang River, and also visited the former residence of Wang Guowei and the former residence of Xu Zhimo. After a few days, we were like brothers of the same generation, talking about everything. We explored many issues together, especially in modern Chinese literature, which has a natural sensitivity and enthusiasm. Wang Xun told me that he was from Hubei, which also impressed me, because Hubei is the hometown of writers and poets such as Wen Yiduo, Hu Feng, and Luyuan that I revere, and hubei people are thick, straight and smart. Among my students, there are many Hubei people, practical, intelligent, willing to read, love to use their brains to think about problems, which is a solid impression given to me by Hubei students.
Wang Xun was rated as an outstanding graduate student at the school, won many awards such as the Scientific Research Achievement Award, and was also rated as an outstanding graduate at the provincial level, which I learned later. His graduation thesis, "Metaphysical from Narrative (Process) to Metaphysics of (Spiritual) Themes," was rated as an excellent thesis by the defense committee panel, which I learned about later. If I were a judge, I would definitely give him an excellent one, his thesis topic is very good, the perspective is very new, and he grasps the real problem. Wang Xun's writing kung fu is also good, the article is simple and fresh, the language is fluent and tenacious, when he sees his article, he thinks of his person, sees his person, thinks of his text, and is really a text like his person.
What makes people feel even more difficult is that after Wang Xun graduated, he actually went to work in a literary journal, which is the place that those of us who love literature want to go the most. The profession I most want to engage in is to be a teacher, which has been realized, and second, to be an editor, but now that I am older, I am afraid that it will be difficult to achieve. I myself have a lot of admiration for Wang Xun's ability to be a literary editor. In the past few years, Wang Xun has been an editor and has discovered many new people in the literary world. Zhu Hefeng, who wrote novels in Ningbo, was discovered by him the first time he submitted an article, while Zhu Hefeng's novels were selected and reprinted by the "Novel Selection" for the first time they were published, and Zhu Hefeng's novels submitted for the second time were also favored and reprinted by the "Novel Selection" after they were published. Zhu Hefeng and Wang Xunsu had never met once. What a pleasure it is for a writer to meet a good editor! In addition to editing, Wang Xun studied almost all the famous novelists in contemporary China, and Wang Xun personally told me: "It can be said that as far as the novels published in the pure literary vision of that year are concerned, my reading volume is amazing. During the day I was busy with editing, and in the evening others went to drink, and I swam in the text. Reading is of course cheerful, but Wang Xun's reading is research reading, every time he reads a writer, he must go deep into the meaning of the work and the depth of the aesthetic realm, in his own words, he is very "focused on the poetic analysis and evaluation of the text itself", the author is very surprised to find that when reading condenses into words, it has both theoretical depth and comment thickness, and the literary style is also remarkable. His articles have been published in many well-known academic journals in China, which can arouse certain repercussions and resonance. Wang Xun not only wrote articles, but also published monographs, and that work was heavy in his hand and sweet in his mouth.
Today, Wang Xun has made practical and enviable achievements in academic research and literary criticism. To tell the truth, when I read such a thick literary critical work as his book manuscript", "Growing at a Fracture: A Study of the Narrative Ecology of Chinese Novels in the New Century", I suddenly felt a sense of admiration in my heart. I often think to myself, where did he come from with such a powerful explosive force? And his energy to study, work and write is really abundant. What Wang Xun often hangs on his lips is the literary scene, and the literary journal is the most important literary scene, and he went to be an editor and went the right way. Yes, for a person who loves literature and loves to think about literary problems, whether he is a writer or a theorist, there is nothing more important than the literary scene.
Wang Xun is one of the few friends in my life interactions who can talk about knowledge and the meaning of life in any aspect. He was welcoming and helpful. Due to the difficulty of publishing funds and the complicated interpersonal relationships on the way to learning, most of my academic monographs are published at my own expense, and I am not willing to spend too much energy outside of learning, but the distribution of works published at my own expense is also very difficult. Wang Xun read some of my books, especially my monograph "July Poetry School Research" adapted from my doctoral dissertation, and felt that the level of effort and work actually reached was enough, and when he was still a graduate student, he took the initiative to help me contact a number of libraries to buy my books, which made me very grateful. To tell the truth, it is not just a matter of money, because the books I have painstakingly written with so much effort can be stored in the library for people to borrow is itself an affirmation of our generation of scholars. Wang Xun's personal help to me is something I remember. In fact, Wang Xun's humanistic care benefits me alone? A famous contemporary Chinese poet was terminally ill, and after Wang Xun learned about it, he also mobilized people at home and abroad to donate money and materials to him through various channels and at the same time. Of course, donations and donations may not be able to save a person's life, but in the era of fraudulent donations and charity, a sincere and down-to-earth humanistic care is so rare! Naturally, Wang Xun is not the kind of person who has great supernatural powers, his love for his relatives and friends is also meager, he himself is not rich, and to be honest, anyone is actually struggling to survive in the cracks, although Wang Xun was born in the era of reform and opening up, he did not embark on a road of outbreak.
After nearly a decade of interaction with Wang Xun, I have found that he is different from many modern literary researchers. Naturally, Wang Xun received good academic training during his graduate school years and a solid theoretical foundation. But he felt that just consulting the materials and collecting the research results of his predecessors was not enough for a literary researcher. Wang Xun emphasized the literary scene, and his articles gave full play to the professional advantages of a literary editor. After he went to work in the magazine, he read the latest published literary works in China every day, and dealt with real writers and poets every day, and this literary life had a great influence on his literary research orientation and literary criticism style. Wang Xun is good at starting from the process of how the novel is written, as well as the soul journey that accompanies the writer's writing, such as some potential or obscured links, and writing articles that have both academic depth and humanistic temperature. And such articles are scarce in contemporary critical circles. He attached particular importance to literary gatherings and academic conferences, attending whenever he had the opportunity. In the spring of 2008, when he learned that Nanjing Normal University had organized a poetry meeting for a group of poets and critics at Xiangquan Lake on the border between Jiangsu and Anhui, he called me and asked me to go with him. In my impression, Wang Xun mainly studied narratology, but he also showed enthusiasm for poetry when he went deep into the literary scene, which made people feel even more precious. After the meeting, we visited the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, the Presidential Palace and other scenic spots together, but unfortunately we were all shy, but we just took a photo outside the door of these scenic spots, which was a souvenir of the visit. It is also worth mentioning that a few years ago, Wang Xun created a literary criticism column "Zhuzi Commentary" on a literary website, and launched it as the main column of the website, which aims to track the current literary scene and make the most timely and effective criticism of the latest literary works. After the establishment of the column, it has received the full support of many benevolent brothers in the domestic critics. The author was also invited to participate, and the assigned task was to track the famous contemporary literary journal "Flower City", specifically to comment on the excellent works published in the journal, the leaders of "Flower City" were very happy, and after seeing the comments, they deliberately included the author in the list of experts who were donated to the journal that year. Unfortunately, this column was later discontinued due to insufficient funds.
Looking at Wang Xun's life and the road of literary criticism, the image of a happy and diligent ascetic came to mind, which appeared about the pen of the British writer Bunyan. Wang Xun has a pious heart for literature and life, and he pays attention to effectiveness and dedication. Such a person, the author thinks, he has found his own natural journey.
(Qian Zhifu, School of Foreign Languages, Ningbo University)
The article was published in Southern Literature Circle, No. 2, 2013
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Read more
Impressions of a Critic
Zhang Yanling, Zhang Ping, editor-in-chief
Writers And Publishers September 2019
My View of Criticism
Zhang Yanling, Zhang Ping, editor-in-chief
Guangxi Normal University Press, January 2016
Editor: Liu Ya
Second instance: Wang Yang
Third instance: Chen Tao