A Study On The War Writing Of Chinese Literature In Europe And America

Throughout the endless course of literature creation and research,war has always been one of the most significant themes of literature writing and culture research.Either it is in the Western countries or the Eastern countries,despite the fact that the difference of cultural philosophy has an impact on the development of diversification of literal creation,war narration has always been a content of significance over the literal creation history.In recent years,the researchers have thought more and more highly of the war writing of Chinese literature in Europe and America.We find out that war narration is of vast range,including both the narration of the war events taking place in domestic China and the portrait of battlefields in other countries and regions across the world.As the Chinese writer groups in Europe and America pay attention to wars of different nature taking place in different periods and different regions,their writings naturally reveal different emotional attitudes and cognitive patterns.From a brief perspective,war writing in the creation of Chinese literature in Europe and America covered three aspects.The first one is the war acting as a narrative object,namely,the writers present the process of the war and the atrocities of war in a direct way,treat people's fighting and struggle who are embattled in the war as the narrative object of the writing,and put the war in a central position to condense the clues of writing and narration,further clarifying that “war” is the theme of the novel and the body of the narration.The second aspect is the war acting as a background of the narration.The writers treat war as a background of the narration and let war maintain a vague appearance in the narration,providing specific chronological and geographical conditions for the works and expediting the specific event to take place.In this context,the “war” is not unrelated to the theme of the narration.Instead,it happens to exist in a crucial external environment which can have a final say on the human's destinies in a specific period.The third one is the war acting as a passageway to the theme of the narration.The writers choose war as a passageway of narration to further convey various themes,including conflicts between human and the history,the conflict between personal survival and collective choice in the war period,and so on.Based on the research achievement the academic field has gained regarding the war writing of Chinese literature in Europe and America in recent years,we can see that although there has been a certain amount of accumulation of relevant discussions,most of the studies prefer to focus on interpreting the works of the writers as a whole.The systematic research conducted on the basis of “war”,observation of the Chinese literature in Europe and America as a whole,and the conclusion of the relative research gains about Chinese literature in Europe and America are still in short.This paper is a systematic study of the results of thinking about "war".Therefore,this thesis focuses on the writing of war of Chinese literature in Europe and America and attempts to dig deeper into the richer and more complex connotations hidden behind the words,based on the analysis of the creative characteristics of related works.The multi-layered positioning of "war" is not to generalize war writing,but to use the clue of "war" in the relevant narrative texts to link up a thematic flow in Chinese literature in Europe and America,focusing on the discursive field derived from the same theme.The first and second chapters of this thesis focus on the historical narratives of war writing of Chinese literature in Europe and America,putting its emphasis on the war writing that took place in China and overseas battlefields respectively.The war narratives of overseas Chinese writers are based on the political orientation and national identity of Chinese culture as well as rich literary traditions,which form the consciousness of life and historical reflection in the overall situation of human destiny.In the past,overseas Chinese writers in the Western countries set up anti-Japanese rescue groups overseas to provide solidarity and economic support for their country's anti-war effort.This sense of cultural and psychological belonging reflects the national feelings of the Chinese.And it is presented in the inheritance and innovation of the literary creation that continues to now.Contemporary Chinese writers in Western countries often choose to stand outside of historic context to recall and visualize people and events that experienced war,and to write about humanity,life,ethnic groups,race,identity,and other aspects amidst the contradictions,conflicts,and dialogues among the multicultural forces,forming a new vision of the world and enriching the look of Chinese literature in Europe and America in the 20 th century to a certain extent.The third chapter of this thesis analyzes the discrete situation and identity in the war narratives of Chinese literature in Europe and America,and re-examines the classic themes of "discrete" and “identity” of Chinese literature in Europe and America in the context of war stories.The extreme dispersion caused by the war makes the writers think about identity in a diversified way,which bursts into new sparks with themes such as ethnic consciousness,localization,and gender writing,and highlighting identity recognition and deviation.The "dislocation" of people during the war makes the analysis of identity even more confusing,including the search for identity by the Chinese as an ethnic minority in a foreign country,other ethnic groups living in Chinese territory due to invasion or asylum,as well as the phenomenon of individual identity switching between active and passive choices.In the works of Chinese writers in Europe and America,"China" is not only the objective existence of the modern nation-state but also the sum total of poetic homeland and identity symbols in the cultural sense.With the narrative function of the material body under the vision of modernity and post-modernity and the sinful writing of mulatto identity in the context of war,the writers present and consider the life experience in the cross-cultural background artistically.The fourth chapter focuses on the ethics of war in war writing of Chinese literature in Europe and America.The ethics of war can be traced back to traditional Chinese cultures,such as the thinking of Militarism,Confucianism,and Taoism,as well as the religious thoughts and historical consciousness under the impact of Western culture.In addition,in the historical context of the transition from war to peace,the problems caused by the collision of wartime cultural norms and enlightenment cultural norms have also become the cultural foothold for overseas Chinese writers to discuss the ethics of war.This paper attempts to further explore the concepts expressed in overseas writers' creative works,such as observing individual fates in the narrative conflict between group liberation and individual liberation and integrating violent aesthetics and anti-war thoughts.Chapter 5 examines the narrative strategies of war writing of Chinese literature in Europe and America and refines common,typical and distinctive narrative styles.Chinese writers in America and Europe use the reconciliation of grand narratives and micro-narratives to balance the relationship between reality and fiction,use the writing technique which can actively expose the author's consciousness to convey the introspection of the peace era through war narratives,make the holders of different perspectives interrelated in the story in multiple narratives and perspective changes to form a kind of vertical complement;ferment the dramatic tension with the element of suspense to complete the atmosphere rendering and structural design;and use the element of "the war" to create the atmosphere of the war.They combine humor and suffering to control the sense of tragedy of the narrative,allowing the rhythm of the narrative to be more restrained,relaxed and gradual.These factors enhance the readability of the writer's creation and the experimental nature of their writing technique and analyze the characteristics of their narration by calling for a deeper understanding of the connotation of the works.On the whole,in terms of the choice of subject matter ideology and international perspective,war writing of Chinese literature in Europe and America complements and expands the writing pattern of Chinese modern and contemporary literature.And in the process of inheriting and developing traditional Chinese culture,war writing of Chinese literature in Europe and America shows its unique existential value.