Publisher, reading expert, this is Nie Zhenning's well-known identity, but in addition, his other identity - novelist is obviously little known, in the eighties and nineties of the last century, he entered the literary world with a number of short stories such as "Dark River" and "Changle", and then entered the publishing industry, putting novel writing on hold for the time being, until last year, his novel "Scholar Xing" was launched, and his novelist identity was highlighted again.
On May 10th, the "Nie Zhenning on Literature, Reading and Education-Novel "Scholar's Journey" Seminar, co-sponsored by the School of Foreign Languages of East China Normal University, the Simian Institute for Advanced Study of Humanities, the East China Normal University Press, and the School of Publishing, was held to deeply explore the significance of literature, the power of literary education and the connotation of the spirit of educators.
Map of the event site
"Scholar's Journey" is Nie Zhenning's first masterpiece to return to fiction creation, and it is also a new attempt in the long-form genre. The novel takes the protagonist Qin Ziyan with ideals and ambitions and chooses to return to the remote and backward hometown of ethnic minorities to build it as the main line, reproduces the difficult process and touching scenes of a group of intellectuals in remote mountainous areas in the middle of the last century, and shows the glorious image of adhering to the ideal of education in adversity. The theme of the work is a tribute to educators, highlighting the theme of "people" and the essence of education, with the spirit of enlightenment and ideals.
In "Scholar's Journey", Nie Zhenning has created a group of vivid characters, who enthusiastically and sincerely devote themselves to the cause of education, in a sense, it is a Chinese "educational poem". In the view of Wang Weisong, secretary of the party group and full-time vice chairman of the Shanghai Federation of Social Sciences, the novel writes about the personal fate of Qin Ziyan and the group of teachers he represents under the great changes of the times, they are "lonely runners" and "lonely thinkers", they carry out educational experiments in the remote mountainous areas of Guangxi, which is also what Ni Huanzhi in Ye Shengtao's pen does, because of this, this novel can trace the history of China that is not far away, and let people see the responsibilities and responsibilities shouldered by generations of educators. "As the saying goes, the scholar is angry, scolds Fang Xuan, hits the water in the middle stream, and the waves curb the flying boat."
Nie Zhenning, "Scholar's Journey"
The educators in the novel maintain great strength and hope, and practice Tao Xingzhi's educational concept of "love all over the world and music to educate talents". This is exactly what Wu Jun, a professor at the School of Humanities of Shanghai Jiaotong University, said, "Scholar's Journey" presents an aesthetic tradition of contemporary Chinese literature, that is, the idealistic belief of both reality and romance, whether it is the content of the novel, the values, or the expression of emotions in the novel, or even the narrative of the novel, which is reflected in this. In the era of artificial intelligence, such writing has a special value for the times.
The time span in the novel is 1963-1964, and Zhao Lihong, vice chairman of the Shanghai Writers Association, believes that in less than two years, many teachers have written about their lives, their educational philosophies, and their pursuits. An important plot in the novel is Qin Ziyan's lectures after arriving at the school, and each class presents a teacher's character, conduct, teaching level, and personal talent, which is the intuitive presentation of educators. Nie Zhenning's narration style is different from that of many young writers today, but the power and vitality of literature, the value and content of novels are being demonstrated. "A good novel must show the wisdom, emotion and conscience of its time, and "Scholar's Journey" shows that era very truly and profoundly."
""Scholar's Journey" is a song of righteousness, heroism, talent, ambition and heroism of education." Writer Zhang Jinjiang defines this novel as follows, "A group of scholars represented by Qin Ziyan pursued the famous sentence in "Johann Christopher" that 'if a person wants to spread sunshine, he must first have sunshine in his heart' on the road of education, and the true feelings written by the writer are moving, and the core of true love is human love, and the book writes the love of the protagonists Qin Ziyan, Shu Zhenhao and a group of scholars for children vividly. There is a detail in the novel, "The dog looks at the water", which is an allusion to Qin Ziyan's hometown: when the Longshui River was swollen, in the vast dusk, a big dog sat on the high bank of the river, looking at the vast water, thoughtful. Zhang Jinjiang regards it as a symbolic image throughout the text, and people face the world, just like "a dog looking at the water".
"Scholar's Journey" unfolds from the perspective of God in the third person, wrapping the whole story in a traditional structure, writing a group portrait of scholars, and taking Fu Xing, deputy editor-in-chief of "Sprout" magazine, as the observation of fellow writers, such a narrative method has relatively high requirements for writers, and the setting of every detail and the design of the plot require profound literary skills, and in addition to this, there must be some genius brushes, Nie Zhenning obviously has his own uniqueness in this aspect. He mentions a kind of "tension" when reading the novel, which is not deliberately created, but constantly travels as the plot unfolds, and carries the suspense to the end of the novel, which is a kind of dramatic internal drive of the novel, and it can be said that it is a very attractive thing produced by the traditional structure.
In the inscription of the novel, Nie Zhenning wrote that "all personnel are fiction, only feelings are true", Wang Yan, president of East China Normal University Press, just thinks that there are biographical elements of the author in "Scholar's Journey", and the description of the background, details, and the scenery and environment of the county town in the novel is so real and delicate that the whole language and structure are broken in modern novels, but there will not be a strong sense of substitution like the traditional description, and this sense of substitution is also the author's own particularly deep emotional degree in it.
In the novel, Nie Zhenning lists a reading list of the era, which has a special meaning. According to Xiang Jing, a professor at the Department of Chinese at East China Normal University and the China Institute of Creative Writing, a large number of literary works and educational monographs are listed in the book list, listed from the perspective of reading experts like Nie Zhenning, in fact, they can constitute the spiritual nourishment of Chinese in the early 60s of the last century, or more specifically the intellectuals of a border county, how a person is read and educated, shaped, in addition to reading, the novel also includes the songs they sing, the various performances they watch and even local dramas, Together, they shape important aspects of the spiritual life of a generation. From the perspective of this kind of historical document, "Scholar's Journey" provides an angle and a different kind of literary work.
Huang Ping, professor of the Department of Chinese at East China Normal University and vice president of the China Institute of Creative Writing, put forward his own views on the structure of the novel, he believes that under the surface of the novel "Shusheng Xing" is the charm of prose, that is, its essence is a prose culture novel, the school has its monotonous part, and the monotonous part is brilliantly explained, reflecting the maturity and sophistication of the writer. He emphasized an important point, when referring to "Scholar Xing" as a period novel with a traditional structure, it does not mean that it has obstacles to young people's reading, "Of course, we have to break the framework of evolutionary theory, is the new necessarily better than the old?" The novel is, of course, an overarching narrative perspective, idealistic in its stance and very serene in aesthetics, which is a scarcity in current writing, and in a sense, it is also a kind of love education for young people to read. ”
Lei Qili, vice president of East China Normal University, attended the event, he said that Nie Zhenning's choice to hold the first seminar of "Scholars Xing" in colleges and universities in East China Normal University is of extraordinary significance, and the in-depth interpretation of the literary historical significance and contemporary significance of "Scholars Xing", and the discussion on the integration and mutual promotion of literature and education are of special significance for promoting the spirit of educators, promoting the interdisciplinary integration of East China Normal University, and promoting the construction of the Publishing School of East China Normal University.
The meeting was presided over by Han Chunhong, Secretary of the Party Committee of the School of Foreign Languages, East China Normal University, and Yuan Xiaoyi, Professor of the Department of French of East China Normal University and Dean of the Simian Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities, and planned by Luo Feng, Professor of the Department of English of East China Normal University. Professor Lin Zhimeng of the School of Philosophy of Zhejiang University, Professor Cheng Liang of the Faculty of Education, Professor Chen Junsong of the Department of English of East China Normal University, Xiao Yang, Deputy Dean of the School of Publishing, and Deng Xianglian, Dean of the Department of Publishing and Culture, participated in the discussion.
New Media Editor: He Jing
Picture: Provided by the organizer and photographed
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