Back to 80: My Literary Life

Northwest by North, Lanzhou University is beautiful

This is Fang Minghua's second visit to Lanzhou University.

The last time was in 1981, when I followed Wu Tianmin to Minqin, Gansu Province to shoot "Hidden in the Dust". In order to write a literary theory article, I came to Lanzhou University to check materials. Later, I was invited by Ke Yang, the then director of the Chinese Department, to give a literary lecture entitled "The Past and Present of Stream of Consciousness Novels and Their Development History in China".

Eighteen years have passed in a blink of an eye.

This school does not look much different from before, except that there are more modern buildings, and some of the old school buildings have disappeared.

But Jishitang is still there.

As the main library of Lanzhou University, it has witnessed the ups and downs of Lanzhou University over the past century, but unfortunately, this school has begun to go downhill.

But a lean camel is bigger than a horse. As a 985 university, it is still very famous in the northwest region.

For example, this library in front of me has a rich collection of books and has provided Internet access.

Fang Minghua stayed in the library for three days and checked a lot of information.

Although "personalized" writing has appeared in the literary world since the mid-1990s, its origin can be traced back to the private novels that were introduced to China in the early 20th century.

"Private novels" are a special form of modern Japanese novels. It uses things around the writer or personal experiences as the subject matter of creation, and boldly describes the conflict between the soul and the flesh. Speaking of "private novels" in modern Chinese literary circles, the typical writer is Yu Dafu.

In this era, network management is not so strict, and it is relatively convenient to access the external network. Fang Minghua also read some other literary theory schools, such as the new realism writing that is now popular in China.

The literary lecture was held on Saturday afternoon, May 29. Lei Da came to Erzhao in advance and accompanied Fang Minghua.

It was still early, and the two chatted in the room.

"How was Zhang Ping's lecture?" Fang Minghua asked casually.

"It was quite popular, but some students asked too sharp questions, and Zhang Ping was a little overwhelmed. This is how it is in university lectures. If you don't have something in your stomach, you will easily be "beaten up" by students.

"What's the problem? "Fang Minghua asked curiously.

"It's mainly about his award-winning novel. The doctoral students in the Chinese Department criticized his novel for being too readable and not literary enough."

Oh.

In fact, this is also the criticism of the new realist novels popular in the literary world. It is good to read, but it gradually exposes its shortcomings: the reformers are described as typical "iron-fisted figures" and "honest officials". The protagonist Li Gaocheng in "Choice" has this tendency, which is also the main reason why the outside world is not optimistic about it.

Of course, another reason is that Zhang Ping is an excellent writer, but his literary theory is not deep. This is a common problem among writers born in the 1950s and 1960s. This is related to the lack of systematic education.

Otherwise, he would not be scared by the theories of the current masters and doctoral students.

"Minghua, you will not experience what Zhang Ping has experienced. Those students can't argue with you. "Radar finally laughed.

Fuck

Is this a compliment or a criticism?

At 2:30 pm, the lecture was held on time in Lanzhou University Wenxin Hall. The director of the School of Literature first made an introduction, and the auditorium burst into warm applause.

The title of Fang Minghua's lecture today is "Japanese Private Novels and Chinese Personalized Writing". Fang Minghua first explained the origins of the two, and then the characteristics of the popular personalized writing.

First, from the perspective of the experience content of the novel narrative, personalized writing expresses a kind of private experience, private consciousness and unconsciousness.

Second, from the perspective of writing style, personalized writing mostly adopts "new memoir" or "new biography" narrative. Whether it is Chen Ran's "Private Life" or Lin Bai's "A Man's War".

Third, from the perspective of the author's role, the author of personalized writing is a Lowercase "I" (private), not uppercase "I" (group, people or public spokesperson),

Fourth, from the perspective of writing motivation, the driving force of private writing is personal psychological needs, especially unconscious and secret desires

For two hours, Fang Minghua explained in a simple and easy-to-understand way the causes, characteristics and existing problems of private writing.

At the end, warm applause broke out in the venue.

To be honest, Fang Minghua has a lot of experience in literary theory research. After all, he has decades more literary experience than others.

What's more, it is much more convenient to search for foreign materials on the Internet now.

The next step is the student question stage, which is also the most troublesome problem for lecturers. Students have all kinds of questions.

"What is private writing? Is it the private writing advocated by some female writers? ”

"Are Lu Xun's novels considered a kind of personal novel?" and so on. Fang Minghua answered them one by one.

At this time, a boy standing in the front row suddenly stood up and said loudly:

"Minghua teacher, I listened to teacher Zhang Ping's lecture a few days ago. I disagree with his views on new realism literature. What is the difference between the protagonists in these novels and the ancient feudal society? I doubt whether there are such novels abroad? ! "

When the question came out, there was a lot of discussion in the auditorium.

Some people asked what question you asked?

It's obviously off topic. If you want to ask, you should ask Zhang Ping.

Of course, more students looked at Fang Minghua on the podium.

Because he wrote a similar novel "In the Name of the People"!

But the protagonist of that novel is much more full than "Choice".

Fang Minghua decided to answer this question.

"First of all, this classmate, let me answer your first question: Are there any novels of this type abroad? There are many Chinese students, graduate students, and doctoral students here, who can answer it?"

Fang Minghua suddenly asked the question to the students in the auditorium.

After a while, a girl who looked very quiet stood up, and the host quickly handed the microphone to her. she

“New workers’ literature emerged in Italy in the 1980s, and some novels appeared that were very similar in style to Mr. Zhang Ping’s “The Choice.”

"You are right. Can you talk about the new workers' literature?" Fang Minghua encouraged.

"I'm sorry, I just read some literature on this, but didn't study it in depth." The girl was a little embarrassed.

Fang Minghua didn't feel embarrassed. After asking her to sit down, he said, "Then I will tell you about the Italian New Workers' Literature."

"The most famous writer in Italy wrote the article "New Working Class Writing: In the Name of Bread and Roses." The "We want bread and roses" in the title refers to the slogan of the American labor movement in the 20th century. Bread is a metaphor for asking for food. , the rose is a metaphor for meeting cultural needs.”

Characteristics of Italian new workers’ literature: refusal to complain, adoption of critical humor, attitude of collective responsibility, transcending realist novels, and experimenting with different genres and expressions

Fang Minghua continued to talk for another half an hour, and finally said: "Let me answer this student's first question again. "Decision" does have common problems in character creation in this type of novel, but it does not negate this novel. The excellence of this kind of novel cannot be denied.”

Finally, he paused and said, "Let me tell you some personal news. I am also writing a working-class novel."