Chen Yan’s novels are steeped in traditional Chinese culture. The Comedy and The Protagonist draw on and use traditional national art resources such as Chinese opera and drama to discover anew and create “tradition” from a modern perspective. Traditional Chinese opera and drama shape the narrative aesthetic nature of Chen Yan’s novels both explicitly and implicitly. The difference between opera and drama, lyrical and impressionistic style, and narrative and action also forms its diverse narrative aesthetic style. The origin and distinction of style and form between Chen Yan’s novels and traditional Chinese comedies and modern Chinese novels are profoundly influenced by time and history, which essentially determines the spiritual structure and narrative aesthetic of Chen Yan’s novels.
The Protagonist is another fulllength masterpiece of realism by Chen Yan following his previous novel The Backstage Clan. His rich experience in drama creation enables Chen Yan to skillfully employ classical literature and traditional opera librettos, and be keener on entering a narrative where novel and opera communicate without any barriers, thereby forming his distinctive narrative aesthetic. In addition, Chen Yan has proficiently created in the abovementioned books typical characters such as Diao Shunzi and Yi Qin’e, creating a blueprint for how these two novels will be passed down to later generations. Unlike The Backstage Clan, which focuses on the extraordinary nature of ordinary people, The Protagonist presents the potential of the rise of ordinary people and a panorama of man and culture by portraying the legendary lives of the protagonist and the secondary protagonist.
Chen Yan has emerged as an outstanding novelist thanks to his rich experience in theatrical literature. His latest novel, The Protagonist, focuses on the heroine Yi Qin’e’s forty-year on the stage,and creates a group of characters living in obscurity under the social changes of the times, portraying a broader spectrum of life and society beyond the domain of drama and conveying his profound observations on life,the times, society, and the world. The epic artistic nature of the novel and the interplay between the fate of the characters and the social changes taking place at the time in the novel, along with Chen Yan’s deep insight into the complexity of humanity are the keys to the successful presentation of the art and ideology of The Protagonist.
The Comedy is another of Chen Yan’s masterpieces of realism after The Backstage Clan and The Protagonist. The difference is that the portrayal of He Jiabei in The Comedy echoes the theoretical idea of “typical characters under typical circumstances.” Through studies on Chen Yan’s writing in a tensive theoretical space of “typicality,” we find that he has applied several important “typical” theories to his novels. He Jiabei, as a “typical character under typical circumstances” no longer embodies the ideal value as did Yi Qin’e in The Protagonist. The function of this character regards the communication between individuals and the times, phenomenon and essence. “Typical characters under typical circumstances” is a theory generated from an analysis of realism inseparable from the “totality” of the times and history. The focus of The Comedy, a novel based on this theory, has also shifted from creating characters with distinct traits to exploring the historical essence of the era of “comedy.”
Chen Yan’s new novel The Comedy is a continuation of his writing of the life and destiny of the artists in The Protagonist. Through shaping characters of the Chou (role of the clown) and describing the joy and sadness experienced by them,his new novel presents the artists’ mixed feelings of sorrow and joy and reveals the crises and dilemmas encountered by traditional art against the background of modernity along with the possibility of transformation and conversion. Like The Protagonist, The Comedy follows Chen Yan’s consistent realistic narrative techniques; unlike the solemn and grand aesthetic style of The Protagonist, however, the new novel develops its narrative with a comic approach more in tune with the characters’ identity and inner spirit and shapes the characters and the story based on the dialectics of comedy and tragedy, thus enriching Chen Yan’s original narrative style and contributing a new aesthetic experience.