On The Aesthetic Features Of Xiao Hong's Novel Ma Bole

As a productive female writer in the history of Chinese modern literature, Xiao Hong has become the research focus for increasing scholars with her works' unlimited value. Scholars have explored her life and her novels and prose extensively. However, Xiao Hong's unfinished work, which was written before her death, named Ma Bole is rarely involved. Nevertheless, whether the content or the form of this novel is of great importance for the readers to have a better understanding of Xiao Hong and her works. This thesis mainly discusses the aesthetic characteristics of Ma Bole in four chapters.The first chapter is the introduction, which mainly introduces Xiao Hong and the research background and the research value of Ma Bole. At the same time, it also illustrates the content and ideological characteristics of Ma Bole.The second chapter introduces the comic features of the novel. It is acknowledged that Ma Bole is a comedy work. Its comic writing style is completely different from that of her former works. This chapter is divided into two sections. The first section explores the comic characteristics of Ma Bole, paving the way for the discussion of the tragic predestination of Ma Bole in the second chapter, which is intended to elaborate the satire art of the novel. This section expresses Xiao Hong's acrid satire skills and seasoned comic capacities through the depiction of the secondary characters and the analyses of wonderful paragraphs.The third chapter focuses on the tragic theme of the novel. Although the whole novel is readily to make people laugh, it leaves us in deep sorrow afterwards. It inherits Xiao Hong's consistent writing style, whose unique aesthetic characteristic is the very combination of its comic appearance and tragic meaning. As the body part of the thesis, it is divided into three sections. The first section reveals the protagonist Ma Bole's unavoidable tragic destination through the description of his personality conflicts and contradictions. On the one hand, Ma Bole is spineless and selfish. On the other hand, he has a strong sense of self-esteem. His strong longing for the realization of self existence and his mean personal defects lead him to the lifelong tragic result of mental escape and physical escape unsuccessfully. The second section is about the tragedy of the other characters in this novel, who are benighted or absurd. Their existence enhances the tragic meaning of the novel. The third section contrasts the similarities and differences between Ma Bole and Xiao Hong's other tragedies, which shows the uniqueness and significance of Ma Bole in three aspects:the creation of the central figures, the choices of the characters'identities and the ways of writing the tragedy as a comedy.The fourth chapter, as the last part of the thesis, discusses the relationship between Xiao Hong and the tragicomedy Ma Bole. The first section analyses the reason why Ma Bole has a prominent characteristic of tragedy under the appearance of comedy. In this work, the author insists on her tragic creation tendency. The novel expresses the profound theme of tragedy which has a close relation with Xiao Hong's personal experience. Her miserable life experience and witness to the terrestrial adversities make her works full of endless sadness and compassion regardless of the means of expression she uses. The second section discusses the reason why the author writes the sad life in Ma Bole in the form of a comedy. If we say writing the tragedy as a tragedy is a writer's serious attitude towards sufferings, then writing the tragedy as a comedy is the author's indifference from the inside to the outside, which is unconcerned, ironic and merciless. Meanwhile, writing the tragedy as a tragedy is the author's intending to change the situation with the premise of facing the sufferings, while writing the tragedy as a comedy reflects the author's evasiveness and helplessness to the sufferings happening in human society, which express the author's extreme sadness and desperation to the life and the age she lived in. Considering Xiao Hong's experience and mood during the creation of Ma Bole, the aforementioned opinion is confirmed to be true easily. It can be said that in a short period of 31 years, Xiao Hong is always accompanied by sorrow and pain. At the same time, Xiao Hong has also brought countless brilliant works to Chinese literary world. The publication of Ma Bole not only provides a chance for people to understand Xiao Hong's various writing styles and characteristics, the profound theme discussed in the novel also proves that Xiao Hong is fully deserved as a great writer in the history of Chinese modern literature.