Artistic Characteristics In Bai Xianyong's Novels

Bai Xianyong is regarded as a rare talent of contemporary short story writers and enjoys a significant status in the field of contemporary Chinese literature, which is inseparable with his persistent effort in treating short stories as a form of art.Based on through study of his works, taking into consideration of his life experience, writing path, literary background and artistic ideas, this paper analyses the traditional and modern characteristics in Bai's works from the perspective of esthetic implications and artistic techniques, and further explores how the key elements of both Chinese and western literature are combined and incorporated into the world of his novels, which form the overall characteristic of his works: the incorporation of western contemporary literary ideas and techniques on the base of Chinese traditional literature.The first part analyses the traditional characteristics in the art of Bai's works. The paper points out that, in terms of esthetic implication, Bai holds high esteem to sense of desolation, which is closely related to his personality, experience and the nurture of Chinese traditional literature. With regard to his artistic techniques, Bai carries on the Chinese traditional artistic techniques on his own initiative. In his novels he successfully employs the narrating skill of expressing spirits by depicting appearances, and excellent descriptions of this kind can be found almost everywhere in his novels. He is good at creating atmosphere by selecting and depicting images and giving hints to the characters' personality and psychology. He employs pure and delicate language in his writing.The second part deals with the modern characteristics in the art of his short stories. The paper points out that Bai holds high esteem to sense of solitude, which is the result of the influence of the western contemporary ideas, especially the Existentialism. Artistically, Bai consciously employs the western contemporary artistic technologies. He employs stream of consciousness to reveal the rich inner world of the characters in the novels, avoiding the weakness of Chinese traditional literature that fails to do so. He employs symbolism to expand the artistic space and enrich the implication of the theme of its novels. He shows perfect skills in the point of view, which is the result of his active study and practice with the western narrating theories.The third part takes Breaking Dreams While Visiting the Park as an example to analyse the overall characteristics of Bai's works--incorporating western contemporary literary spirits and techniques into his works on the basis of Chinese traditional literature. While absorbing both Chinese and western nutrition to form his own artistic world, he adheres to the principle of keeping Chinese ideas and technologies as the major scream while adopting some western techniques. On the basis of this, he gathers and accepts extensively in order to merge the Chinese and western literature. The major reason for this characteristic is the rooted influence of the Chinese traditional literature. While learning from the western literature, he is able to look at Chinese and western literature from a higher level and absorb their strong points, Breaking Dreams While Visiting the Park one of his master pieces, highlights this characteristic. While depicting facts, he employs widely the technique of stream of consciousness, thus creating the sharp contrast between the past and the present, as well as the prosperous and the declined, and forcefully expresses the profound sense of history and the strong feeling towards the desolate life of human being, which is peculiar to Chinese literature.