A Study Of Wang Xi - Yan 's Novels Under The Infiltration Of Nostalgia During The Anti - Japanese War

Lu Xun pointed out that one of the common features of rural novelists is “the implied nostalgia”. Nostalgia, rural novelists’ common emotional experience, emphasizes that intellectuals coming from rural area and living in cities bear the missing emotion and memory of their hometown. From a broader perspective, most “pioneers”of literary and ideological revolution before and after the May 4th Movement have the experience of coming to cities and other countries from rural area. The missing emotion towards and consideration of their hometown and homeland aroused by “nostalgia”, a giant cultural difference, help awaken them to be aware of modern age and start to think about China’s process of modernization. The themes of Wang Xiyan’s works during the Anti-Japanese War are mainly based on farmers and intellectuals, which are composed by the illumination of nostalgia. Wang Xiyan’s nostalgia during the Anti-Japanese War has a new connotation. It’s a combination of deep worried and indignant emotion, man’s natural kindness and awareness of unexpected development of the state and nation, and show more directly the author’s deep love and worry towards land, people and homeland through the infusion of class concept, national and state consciousness, etc.This paper carry out the research from three aspects on Wang Xiyan’s novel composition during the Anti-Japanese War. The first part is rural scene saturated with nostalgia. Wang Xiyan’s rural novel not only calmly depict farmers’ suffering, but also put more emphasis on the analysis of the spiritual world of different types of farmers under a particular historical background. One class of them are oppressed and exploited farmers; the other class are both the sufferer and the defender of old social system and culture, they contribute to other people’s tragedy and act as both a sufferer and an accomplice; another class are farmers who are not resigned to depravity and are filled with strong vitality and sense of revolting, showing farmers’ strong vitality.The second part is the image of intellectual after the reconstruction of nostalgia. Wang Xiyan characterize various types of intellectual images during the Anti-Japanese War and depict the polarization of intellectuals, including those who are purchasing enjoyment and profound and lasting spirit, those who are spiritually tired and confined to reality, and those with firm and persistent spirit who want to rescue themselves.The third part is the cultural and aesthetic features of novel under the consciousness of nostalgia. Wang Xiyan’s description of farmers and intellectuals during the Anit-Japanese War reflect the writer’s pursue of facing reality in literature, aesthetically sticking to the standpoint of people and the principle of realism, the pursue of “beauty”and“kindness”and the expression of life consciousness,as well as the inherit of various narration and poetic tradition.