The Literary Writing of a “World of Totality”: A Revisit to Builders of a New Life

Abstract

Builders of a New Life (Chuangyeshi) is a novel that takes a deep dive into the essence of historical materialism and dialectical materialism. The novel creates a literary form of political metanarrative and presents the literary narrative of the rural cooperative movement in China within the framework of socialist revolution, through a plot with the connotation of documentary political economy. At the literary narrative level, Builders of a New Life develops the narrative through the subjective perspectives of numerous characters, which pushes the development of the plot forward and bridges the text world with external reality. The result is the creation of a world of general literature unifying thought, emotion and action, along with the development of a distinctive epic narrative form.

Keywords

Builders of a New Life, Liu Qing, world of totality, socialist realism

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