A Narratology Study Of Liu Zhenyun's New Century Novels

Since the beginning of the new century,more uniqueness has been found in Liu Zhenyun's novels than his past works and those of his contemporaries.This uniqueness is reflected in two aspects: the content and the form.The uniqueness of his novels' content mainly lies in the extent and depth of the subject.From the beginning of the new century,Liu Zhenyun has consciously adjust his direction in writing,turning his narrative focus to the abnormal survival state,which is named the world of “twist”.While revealing the absurdity of the time and the “twist” of the world,he also explores the underlying logic of this “twist”.Since entering the new century,Liu Zhenyun's novels have been featured by narrative skills,mode and structure.During this period,he reprocessed the “twists” in real life with unique expression,narrative skills and structure,presenting them to his readers in a proper narrative form.It is a aesthetic transcendence.“Twist” and “absurdity” are his understanding of the world.He can always find a proper narrative form to express these two perceptions and turning them into works of aesthetic properties.Narratology studies the internal form of narrative writing,focusing more on the narrative mode and structure.This paper selected narratology theory as the method to study Liu Zhenyun's novel in the new century.The discussion to explore his uniqueness in writing will be developed from various aspects,including narrative mode,structure,grammar,and narrative effect.The narrative mode is the novel's forms of expression,including the writer's perspective to observe and describe the story,the narrative time,and the effects the writer created by distinctive language.As for the writer's perspective,Liu Zhenyun achieves the expansion of narrative time and space through the omniscient and limited perspective and enhances the reading interest.And in time aspect,the writer fits the theme and brings the reader with new reading experience with his control and adjustment of narrative time,as well as the mixture use of paralleled narrative,pre-emptive narrative and multi-clue paralleled narrative.In terms of language aspect,Liu Zhenyun consciously makes his language “twisted” to create an effect of defamiliarization,corresponding to his theme of “twisted narrative”.Narrative grammar refers to the narrative features that appeared repeatedly in plots organizing and story structure.In the structure of Liu Zhenyun's novels in new century,some stable and common features can always be found,including the “searching” and “contrasting” that often appeared in his work,as well as the repeated “symmetry” structure.All these features constitute his unique narrative grammar.Whether the “meaningless resistance” under the searching mode or the “inevitable depravity” under contrasting mode,it all reflects Liu Zhenyun's doubt and introspection towards history and reality,ruthless understanding of the world's absurdity and nihility,as well as his humanitarian concern and care to individual existence.The study on narratology should not be separated from reading.The narrative mode and structure the author uses depend on whether they can properly express the writer's topic and thought,and whether they can satisfy the reader with aesthetic pleasure and joy.And the effectiveness of the mode and structure will be examined in readers' reading and acceptance.Entering the new century,Liu Zhenyun has stressed the readers consciousness as well as his creative subjectivity.On one hand,he has won more readers through routes of transmission,selecting targeted material and familiar narrative mode.On the other hand,he has insisted in his creation philosophy,keeping the pioneer spirit and critical consciousness in creation,trying to keep the tension between being a literary work and consumer goods,finding the balance between subjectivity and reader consciousness.