Wang Zengqi’s "Hometown" Novel Series: An Exploration Of Rewriting And Original Story

In the 1980 s,Wang-Zengqi created a series of novels about his hometown,based on people,events and objects from his memory of his hometown in Gaoyou.The prototypes in these novels are all at an important point in Wang-Zengqi’s memories of his hometown-his teenage years.This is not only the source of WangZengqi’s hometown novels,but also the spiritual home of his long life experience.By intervening in Wang-Zengqi’s hometown novels through the theory of literary original story,the historical and psychological capacity latent in them can be opened up more,providing a perspective and paradigm for understanding Wang-Zengqi’s creation.The characters in Wang-Zengqi’s series of novels about his hometown fall into three main categories.The first category is the archetypes of folk craftsmen.For example,Wang Er in The Dissimilar Qualities,Wang-Shouwu and Tao-Huchen in Three Friends in the Year of Winter,including the monk in Take Oaths as a Monk,are all real-life characters from Gaoyou County.The second category is the intellectual archetypes.For example,Jin-Yifu and Ji-Taomin in Three Friends in the Year of Winter,Gao-Beiming,Tan-Piyu,Gao Xue and Wang-Houji in Migration,and Wang-Danren in The Doctor Who Fishes.They are either real characters or take on the shadow of Wang-Zengqi’s father.The third category is the female archetypes.For example,Qiao Yun in The Chronicles of Danao,Miss Sun in The Bead Lamp,and Xue-Daniang in Xue-Daniang.These female characters,whether they are mentally normal or morbid,or act beyond moral restraints,reveal in their characters the unique water-like nature of women in the watery villages of northern Jiangsu.In addition,the events Wang-Zengqi experienced in his childhood and the customs of Gaoyou in the 1940 s become the prototypes in his hometown series of novels.Analyzing these archetypes in the context of this critical theory helps to understand Wang-Zengqi’s world of memory and the "people and events of the old society".There will generally be some variation from what the author experienced,heard and felt to the world revealed by the work.Wang-Zengqi’s Hometown series of novels also provides artistic rewrites of old people,old events,and old works.From the 1940 s to the 1980 s,Wang-Zengqi’s novels have been rewritten over a span of 40 years,reflecting his continuous reflection and sedimentation on life,as well as his increasingly mature creative concepts and style.Wang-Zengqi’s seemingly "careless" writing style is in fact his "painstaking work".In the face of real character and event prototypes,the writer’s rewriting in his creation conveys the writer’s unique thoughts and feelings about life.In the process of rewriting the novel,WangZengqi achieves the goal of "rewriting" through the interlocking narrative mode,the dissolution of "grand narrative" by "small narrative" and the "delay" mechanism.The purpose of rewriting human life patterns is to provide readers with a different kind of literature and life style.When Wang-Zengqi rewrites the real archetypes,he gives the past a modern meaning through the treatment of "dark turns",which is also his reflection on and search for the literature of the 1980 s.In the series of novels about his hometown,his sober tone is paradigmatically combined with the sad and realistic plot.WangZengqi’s "dark turn" comes from his diversified cultural experiences,bringing his creation back to realism and bringing a touch of color to the new period with his restrained and moderate style of writing,and renewing the "lyrical tradition" in the1980 s.In Wang-Zengqi’s novels,the events of daily life in the ancient city of Gaoyou became the focus of his attention.He deliberately diluted the storyline and conflicts in his novels,making them "plotless" and instead a faithful record of ordinary daily life,restoring the "extraordinary" nature of real life to the "everyday".The transformation of "everydayness" from the "extraordinary" to the "everyday" is achieved.This "dark turn" provides a kind of "reminiscent" gentleness and connotation,and shows Wang-Zengqi’s historical examination and conception of life,thus presenting another possibility in the face of the literature of the 1980 s.