A Study On The Urban Writing Of Mo Yan's Novels

Mo Yan,one of the most important contemporary writers in China,builds his unique literary kingdom – Gaomi Northeast Township,in which the history and reality are presented in his works.It can be said that Mo Yan's novel creation is inseparable from his hometown.Twenty years' rural life experience,hunger and lonely childhood give Mo Yan the precious creation wealth on the one hand,but let him deeply understand the gloominess of the rural areas where he tries to escape on the other hand.Only after entering the city did he truly and profoundly realize the significance of his hometown to him.From the 1980 s onwards,Mo Yan had been living in Beijing for a long time and accumulated much urban experience.At the same time,the urbanization speed has been increasing rapidly since 1990,and the countryside has embarked on the urbanization process.Mo Yan's Gaomi Northeast Township is also inevitable.His concern about the surge of desire,the alienation of human nature and the plight of modern people caused by the development of urban civilization makes him write a lot works about cities in his novels.Like the most contemporary Rural Urban writers,he is not able to give up the convenience of city life,but never really integrate into the city and accept everything in it.In addition,the reality of the countryside also makes it impossible for him to go back.Therefore,he is in the contradiction and becomes a waif in the spirit.Mo Yan's complex feelings for the countryside and the city,his individualized artistic pursuit,as well as his style characteristics in his urban novels are the focus of this thesis intends to elaborate.This thesis includes three parts which are introduction,text(four chapters)and conclusion.The first chapter firstly summarizes the realistic environment of urbanization in China and the rise of urban writing in the field of literature.On the one hand,the urban literature develops in a large scale.The writing category of rural fiction expands and the Rural Urban writers share the similar characteristics in their novels on the other hand.Starting from Mo Yan's life experience,we can understand his estrangement from the city and his critical stand on city writing in the novel.The second chapter analyzes the symbolized urban landscape in Mo Yan's novels,which is an artificial environment in opposition to the nature and represents consumption,power and civilization,giving people a sense of oppression.On the one hand,the city is like a cage,depressing people's freedom;On the one hand,the desire of cities leads to the loss of human nature and the excessive release of animal nature,such as the intemperance of desire for food,sex,money and power.Mo Yan's narrative strategy for the desired city is mainly manifested in two major characteristics: imaginary narration and illusionary color.The third chapter analyzes the city people written by Mo Yan.The first kind is the rural intellectuals who live and work in the city,but always feel anxious like the rootless duckweed.Although they miss their hometowns,it is difficult for them to return.They sometimes tried to struggle and resist,but eventually went down in the city;The second is the desire chaser,part of which are the people who oppose others and are full of desire,with vested interests in the native city.While the other part is heroes who get rich in the countryside,and they lose their ration in the process of pursuing the desire;The third kind of people are those women having the tragic destinies.They suffered from the dual oppression of capital and male power and in the "animal" situation.Chapter four elaborates the urban-rural relationship in Mo Yan's urban writing.In his works of the 1980 s,we can see the binary opposition between urban and rural areas is mainly manifested,and there exists a great conflict of interests and mutual repulsion in the psychological level.While other works present the transition from the countryside to the city,as well as the condition of evil integration between the both.In this process,the assimilation between the city and the countryside in the aspect of consumption concept happens.The countryside is no longer attached to the land but rather processes to urbanization,using each other for their own reasons.In the conclusion,the author points out Mo Yan's ultimate concern and ideal pursuit for human being's living circumstances behind his urban critical writing,and critically analyzes the value and deficiency in Mo Yan's urban writing.