论现当代文学中的家族小说

On Modern Chinese Novels of Clans

Abstract: modern Chinese novels dealing with clans are building a bridge between history and reality for us. Histories of nations and families reflect waves of China's social changes. Setting "clan" as a cultural symbol for description and reflection, those novels not only create a group of glamorous characters with distinctive personalities, but also present the readers with the brutality and truth of clan struggles, thus restoring history.

Key words: clan  history   tradition

The theme and content of a clan novel are usually particular, describing the life and relationships of one or several clans, through which to reflect the affluent characteristics of history and the designated times. The stories in the novel usually form a pattern of annuals. In the late nineties, historical novels, especially those concerning modern Chinese history, demonstrate a clear tendency that many writers have come to use the vicissitudes of a clan to reflect history. By using "clan” as a metaphorical polymer, the writer makes his own unique modern reflection and cultural reconstruction. In 20th century, the creation of clan novels gradually developed on the premise of assuming the mission of modernization. Starting from Lu Xun's "Diary of a Madman", novels like Ba Jin's "Home", Lao She's "Four Generations under One Roof," Eileen Chang's "Golden Lock", Chen Zhongshi's "Bai Lu Yuan ", Zhang Wei’s “The Clan", Liu Zhenyun's "Yellow Flowers under the Heaven and back at Home” and so on, have joined to form a fairly spectacular literary stream.1.The course of development of clan novels:During the last 20 years of the 20th century, the literary trend of "Historical Reflections” encouraged the complicated and often intertwined reflections of politics, history, and human nature in contemporary Chinese literature. The intention of seeking cultural root was to re-examine the Chinese traditional culture, and promote the literary mission to a level of national survival, social progress and solicitude of beliefs. A large number of writers, on the one hand, criticized the inherent traditional part of Chinese culture, and on the other were proud of the brilliant civilization and vigorous vitality of the nation, and made an attempt to find out the cream of Chinese native culture in order to recast the national soul. It was exactly with this contradiction in mind and a strong sense of anxiety that many writers wielded their pen towards the nation's history and tried to explore the Chinese's soul tracks from a cultural respect, as has been shown in novels like "White Deer", "Ancient Boat", and so on. At the end of 20th century, the transforming of society, the rapid stratification and reconstruction of it, bring about confusions of value orientation and modern anxiety, which naturally stimulates people’s imaginationand seeking of clan culture the core of which is kinship ethics, thus provoking a prosperous creation of clan novels. The strong historical nostalgia once again stimulated the flourishing wave of clan novels. Novels with the theme of clan life more or less bring modern people a sense of consolation and the identification with ancestry of the clan, and the acquirement of power to live on.2.Description of clan struggles:Demonstrating the multi-faceted understanding of modern Chinese history through the description of the rise and fall of a clan is a main feature of Chinese novels during the past two decades. "White Deer" created the model of common people’s orthodox history for the first time. From then on, dealing with such subjects in such way has become a tradition of the novel writers. National conflicts and the rise and fall of clans revealed in the clan novels, are not only an illustration of the changes and replacements of political power, but also a reflection and negation of the philosophy of violence. (“Ancient Boat" unfolds the scenes of rural land reform, the violence, greed, and dirty mind of the proletariat hooligans and their crazy revenge to the landlord class and the dissidents.) "White Deer" makes the plural explanations of history of Chinese political struggles in a popular narrative way. Chen Zhongshi, the author of the novel, tries to express the idea that there is, above the political ethics, a more stable civil ethics which is supported by tradition, as the old saying goes, “there sure is justice among the folks”. "White Deer" initiated a narrative model of reflecting Chinese revolutionary history from the perspective of traditional culture. Moreover, the complexity of Chinese traditional culture has provided a broad space for re-examining Chinese revolutionary history.

References:

[1]Yinji, Family of modern Chinese writers Complex and Novel Writing, Article 25 No. 2,2005

[2] Chen Sihe，Contemporary Writers Comment，Sixth ,2007.

董  雪：青岛大学文学院。