Breakthrough Of The Lustful City

The new city novel that grew up in the 1990s holds quite an important position in the literary world at the turn of the century. The new city novel not only is great in quantity, but also has formed its own particular aesthetic mode.The market economy was established in our country in the 1990s. The shift of economy mode brought about the change of social culture. Under the function of economy lever and the lead of mass media, the elite culture gradually lost its market and vitality, while the mass culture became one with large coverage in the 1990s.Meanwhile, the mass culture possesses three main features of its own: (1) the mass culture aims at entertainment; (2) the mass culture take the appearance of commerce and fashion; (3) the mass culture has the realistic and timely implication. These characteristics had great influence on the new city novel that grew up in the!990s, and made aesthetic features of the new city novel take on distinct tendency of secularity. It pays attention to the commonplace lives of ordinary citizens, and overlooks the descriptions of outstanding achievements of the contemporary heroes. At the same time, the narrative style of the new city novel has also changed. Instead of pursuing magnificent narration, it strives perseveringly for the individual narration and secular narration. In addition, the new city novel pays special attention to the current materialism and lust, which makes the aesthetic value intension possess characteristics quite different from that of the literature in the 1980s. Its aesthetic tendency and aesthetic style are farcicality, parody, irony and black humor, etc. which are opposite to loftiness and tragedy. In some sense, this kind of aesthetic style can be summed up as "secularity".In the several years, the new city novel has stepped into a predicament in its aesthetic pursuit of "secularity". Up till now, no single piece can be regarded as powerful work that aims directly at the city spirit and arouse a forceful soul convulsion of its people. Why so violent a literary tide cannot dash out glimmering gold? It's an inevitable issue for us to find out the reason of the problem.This paper mainly analyzes it from the aspects of ultimate concern and deep structure. At present, most of the new city novels pay attention to the current human existing conditions, and care more about the solving of the practical existing problem. Their concern is the concern for human in the existent conditions and for individual's material welfare, and is rarely the "ultimate concern". After their deviation from the lofty survey of the ultimate concern, the new city novelists, not only made their writing get into the odd circle of not being able to transcend theexistent reality, "but also made themselves lose the courage to judge and criticize the various existing realities. The key point is how the new city novelist can pick up the "ultimate concern", put it in their own spiritual homesteads, introduce it into their writing, make it reveal lots of existing ways that human desire, and make their aesthetic perspective really transcend the predicament of reality.Because of the superficial writing of the new city novelists, their works are full of abundant empty signifiers, only ideas instead of internal essence. Copying from the superficial phenomena of life makes their works have the serious tendency of forming into types, which is another limitation of the new city novelists. How to overcome this malpractice is another problem demanding prompt solution. However, we should be optimistic. As we probe further into the new city novel, and new writers continuously joins in, powerful works with lofty aesthetic style will appear.