Turn of Literary Creation with Worldly Feelings and Realism Today: Taking Liang Xiaosheng’s Novel A Lifelong Journey for Example

Abstract

It is an important proposition of contemporary realist literature creation to be close to the mundane lifestyles in reality and write about the Chinese experience. From the far-reaching heroic narration of the early years, to the Chinese stories since the 21st century, the realist literature creation deals with the mundane daily life, showing a turn towards worldly feelings. Liang Xiaosheng’s novel A Lifelong Journey extends the perspective to the living space of ordinary people in the cities. Unlike the epic depiction of “regretless heroes” in the zhiqing novels from his earlier years, Liang makes a shift to the writing of worldly feelings about the warmth in reality. While writing about the hardships in reality, this novel continues to construct stories of good people and adheres to the ethical positioning of good people culture. The two generate a conflict with each other throughout the text, forming the narrative tension. However, governed by the emotional structure of the good people culture, the novel lacks the expression of complex human nature while putting a focus on the mundane existence.

Keywords

worldly feelings, realism, turn of literary creation

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