How to create typical images like Lin Daiyu and Guan Yunchang
The aesthetic experience of reading novels may be derived from the legendary pleasure of Jin Shengtan's words of "everyday, the strangeness is endless; chasing dangers at every level, and chasing dangers must be pursued without end", or it may be immersed in "street talk". , hearsay,” the trivial discourse exudes the diverse tastes.
No matter how developed the current audio-visual media, the narrative of the novel is an indispensable "story mother", and its various "narrative mirrors" depicting the existence of the world will continuously provide a variety of stories, images and themes.
Inquiring about novels and analyzing the influence of the aesthetic experience of novel art on readers is to more clearly explore the inherent characteristics of novel narrative as a kind of "aesthetic soft power", so as to provide potential theoretical support for novel creation and reading.
Good novels focus on creating typical characters that readers "recognize", so as to know themselves and others
After Sun Shaoping, the protagonist of Lu Yao's "Ordinary World", entered the city, he said to himself that he "couldn't pat the loess off my body."
The identity background created by this "loess on the body" causes the relationship between the protagonist and the city to fluctuate repeatedly between rejection and acceptance.
The series of situations created by this shock have made the character of Sun Shaoping "typical": as an individual, Sun Shaoping is special and individual, but this individual image is connected with the "spiritual commonality" of a huge group of people .
Since the 1980s, China's urbanization process has gradually accelerated, and more and more rural people have entered the city. Young readers can "recognize" themselves when they encounter the image of Sun Shaoping.
The most basic aesthetic creation of an excellent novel is to create a typical character that readers "recognize".
This kind of "recognition" includes not only "recognizing" the images of characters similar to oneself, but also many images of others outside the self-world.
An important mission of modern fiction is to explore how the characters of the novel know themselves and others.
Modern novels strengthen the narrative mechanism of characters' psychological cognition, from which one can glimpse the characters' unfathomable psychological motives and ever-changing perceptual dynamism, and discover innumerable relationships, conflicts and reconciliations between characters and society.
The narrative content about character identity and emotional attribution provided by modern novels, such as "Who am I", "Whether I am worth", "Whether I am worthy of being concerned", etc., allows readers to continuously develop their aspirations, habits, tastes, atmosphere, words, etc. Recognize "what the self has in common with a certain fictional character, and even discover that it is possible to better understand the self through the fictional character.
The persistent and strong ideological and emotional resonance caused by the confusion and distress, love and yearning of the characters in the novel, from "recognition" to identification, is an important way for readers to generate "aesthetic sense of belonging".
The strong tradition of realism since the 19th century has made modern novels more inclined to endow characters with full psychological motivation and believable destiny through the portrayal of social environment.
In the novel, the story of "I" is always mixed with the stories of others. If you "recognize" more others, you may "recognize" the relationship map of the protagonist's thoughts and emotions.
Furthermore, through novels, you can get to know all kinds of "others", become familiar with the life forms of "others", and avoid the aesthetic narrowness of only recognizing characters similar to yourself. This can not only broaden the aesthetic vision, but also give the reading process "a sense of aesthetic belonging". Greater tolerance and openness.
Such reading resonates with "I" and "others" as well.
In this way, it is possible to be moved by the stories, fates, thoughts and emotions of various "others" in the cultural community, and only then can a more extensive "aesthetic sense of belonging" be constructed.
Take the series of peasant images created by contemporary Chinese writers as an example.
From a historical perspective, from the "Small Belly Pain" and "I can't eat enough" in "Exercise", Li Shuangshuang and Sun Xiwang in "Li Shuangshuang Biography", to Liang Shengbao and Liang San Lao Han in "Entrepreneurship History", Liu Yusheng, Pavilion batter, until Chen Huansheng of "Chen Huansheng Going to the City", Gao Jialin of "Life", and Sun Shaoping and Sun Shaoan of "Ordinary World".
The fates and thoughts and emotions of these characters are marked by the times, and readers can "recognize" themselves or "recognize" others.
This aesthetic experience of "recognition" allows readers to feel concretely and deeply that they are part of a larger community.
The shaping and dissemination of a series of "typical characters" made Chinese writers and readers in different periods of the 20th century become participants in the cultural community.
Lu Xun used the image of Ah Q to awaken the Chinese people, Shen Congwen created the rural imagination of Cuicui showing the beauty, Liu Qing portrayed Liang Shengbao to promote the power of the collective, and the creation of a series of characters in modern Chinese novels since the 20th century has attracted thousands of people. Thousands of readers actively participate in the construction of the "aesthetic sense of belonging" of the Chinese cultural community.
Character images, situational descriptions and atmosphere aesthetics of excellent novels can become collective cultural memory
The British literary theorist Lubbock wrote in his book "Fiction Techniques" that the images of young people in Tolstoy's "War and Peace" not only existed for a specific era, but also possessed inter-era literary memory.
He said: "Those young people have different looks and talents, moods and temperaments, but they are all as youthful and energetic as young people of all times and places - the story immediately becomes lively and lively when they have them." El, Andre, Natasha, and the rest of them are the children of yesterday, today, and tomorrow; there is nothing in any of them that is not of all times." Indeed, War and Peace As a world classic widely spread, the image of young people it creates not only belongs to a certain era, but also serves as an image symbol of cultural memory across eras and regions, entering people's daily reading vision as a literary image of "youth incarnation" .
Characters such as Don Quixote, Madame Bovary, and Anna Karenina in the world famous novels also crossed national borders and became "spokespersons" of certain character traits and integrated into the cultural memory of readers.
Similarly, a series of characters created by the classical Chinese novels "A Dream of Red Mansions", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" also "live in the moment" through the reading activities of contemporary readers.
Literary images such as Lin Daiyu, Jia Baoyu, Xue Baochai, Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Lu Zhishen and Lin Chong have become emotional symbols of a certain personality and temperament in Chinese culture.
Although they are literary figures on paper, they have always been our "friends of the soul", shaping the cultural mind of Chinese readers.
When we identify someone with a sentimental temperament like Lin Daiyu or someone with a heavy promise as Guan Yunchang, we don't have to retell the story of Lin Daiyu or the legend of Guan Yu. Daiyu is the cultural memory of infatuation and persistence, and Guan Gong is the Chinese symbol of righteousness.
The characters in the novel are the perceptual codes of cultural memory, and the situation and atmosphere in the novel's narrative also have the value of "cultural awakening".
Take Wang Zengqi's novel as an example: In "The Precepts", "the three pairs of shoes embroidered by Dayingzi spread all over a 30-mile radius. Many girls walk and take boats to see them."
For the sake of Dayingzi's "chaotic" embroidery stitches, the girls can run 30 miles to "watch". Such a leisurely mood is an unimaginable life situation in an industrialized consumer society that pursues efficiency and speed.
Wang Zengqi uses novel aesthetics to preserve the cultural memory of "ancient" county towns where elegance and vulgarity are intertwined for contemporary readers.
In the Narrative Museum of Gaoyou County, there are characters such as Carpenter Dai, Boss Lian, Wang Er, Zhang Hanxuan, Wang Baoying, Baqiansui, Wang Sihai, etc. Their lives are closely related to the fate of the small town, interpreting the "atmosphere" described by Wang Zengqi. That is, various custom pictures of characters.
Through reading, Wang Zengqi's private aesthetic memory has become a kind of collective cultural memory, and its situation description and atmosphere aesthetics have become a kind of collective cultural memory, providing concrete memory resources for members of the cultural community to understand the past and the present.
The artistic expression of narrative aesthetics in novels, the function of cultural memory is not to maintain and inherit memory through physical buildings such as monuments, museums, libraries, and archives, but to use stories, atmosphere, language, taste, habits, style and other sensibility. Narrative is a period of cultural time and space to carry memory, forming its "memory field" that spans time and space.
Fiction works are integrated into the current cultural field with their unique and rare narrative aesthetic memories with the perceptual charm of "knowing", "good" and "happy", and constructing the interest, beauty and realm of the cultural community.
Only with a deep and open artistic realm can novels form a leading spiritual force
A novel creates characters and depicts the atmosphere, and ultimately achieves the aura of a narrative work.
The level of artistic realm has an internal influence that cannot be underestimated on the style of the novel.
Only a deep and open artistic realm can make the novel form a leading spiritual force.
In the poetic theory of the Tang Dynasty, the "realm-based criticism" represented by "Twenty-Four Poems" appeared.
Through the realm, we can measure the different characters of poetry works in terms of life understanding, historical insight or cosmic feeling.
Poetry is born in a situation, and poetry is born in a situation. The "realm-based criticism" of poetry is mostly to appreciate the level of artistic realm through the relationship between object and mood.
The artistic realm of the novel is not only about the state of things and the state of mind, but also through a series of encounter narratives, that is, the changing fate of the characters, to show the protagonist's open-mindedness.
The presentation of the artistic realm of the novel is gradually unfolded, and this process is accompanied by the continuous changes in the story, character, speech, behavior, psychological activities, especially the fate and situation of the characters.
Jin Shengtan commented on the various characters in "Water Margin", so-called "upper characters", "upper middle characters", "middle upper characters", "middle lower characters" and other subdivisions. The specific application of Xi in novel criticism.
The stories of Wu Song and Shi Xiu in "Water Margin" are quite similar.
Jin Shengtan sighed that Wu Song was wronged and "accepted it without arguing." Such a hero was "like ice and jade", while Shi Xiu was "fine and vicious."
"Be sure to argue: argue behind your back, and argue with your face." This is Jin Shengtan's brilliant point. He pointed out the gap in spirit and the pattern of life through the attitude of heroes after being wronged, not through the hero's physical strength. Divide.
Such novel reviews are actually based on the realm of personality to judge the realm of aesthetics.
The more transcendental spirit of "A Dream of Red Mansions" achieves the artistic realm of the whole novel with the great mystery of life hidden in deep affection and pain.
Behind the scene of infinite prosperity and youthful laughter in the Grand View Garden is the lingering question of life, which is awe-inspiring, as if there is a giant detached eye between heaven and earth, staring at the fate of these little children in "A Dream of Red Mansions".
For the death of a maid like Qingwen, Jia Baoyu also showed undifferentiated great sorrow and great regret.
Among them, there is a deep attachment to love.
It is the fusion of this transcendent vision and boundless compassion that makes the novel world of "A Dream of Red Mansions" possess the artistic realm of "cosmic" and "philosophical" according to Wang Guowei.
The conscious pursuit of artistic realm in contemporary Chinese fiction creation is also worthy of attention.
Take Wang Anyi's novels as an example.
Exploring the relationship between people and the times in the city has always been an important theme in Wang Anyi's novels.
The urban ordinary people she describes, whether it is the heroine who goes from the countryside to the city to seek life in "Fu Ping", or the young woman who walks from the city to the countryside and back to the city in "Thirty Chapters of Running Water" and "Peach's Yaoyao" , or the primary school teachers who accompanied an old house in the city in "Kao Gong Ji", their fate is always subject to the constant test of the tide of the times.
With the change of time in a large span and the connection of different forms of space, the characters in Wang Anyi's works are always faced with difficult choices about where to go in their love, friendship, family, career and residence, whether they are in the mighty passion of history or in the still waters.
In this way, these protagonists need to constantly answer the conundrums of fate on the level of daily life.
Since this kind of response comes from the perceptual level of daily life, the protagonists of many of Wang Anyi's works show the temperament and personality realm of being alone, persistent, bearing a lot of weight, not only credible, but also approachable.
The spiritual realm of the protagonist in the novel is not imagined in the study, but in the daily life and work of sharing the same fate with so many ordinary "others", gradually forming the judgment, perception and the history of the city and individual. Poetic reverie.
The creation of contemporary novels, especially the creation of novels, not only requires excellent stories, characters and structures, but also needs to present the protagonist's noble personality and open-mindedness after complex and even difficult experiences and reflections.
Only the personality and realm expanded after experiencing the wave of the times can form a unique look and charm, and then call on the contemporary readers' "aesthetic sense of belonging" and shape new cultural memory.
The creation of contemporary novels is based on realm, so that it can not only have substantial content, but also show the penetrating power of wisdom, not only the precision of narrative, but also the breadth, depth and charm of spiritual atmosphere.
(Author: Yu Daizong, professor at the School of Literature, Fujian Normal University)