Back to 80: My literary life.

Chapter 819: New Italian Workers' Literature
Northwest by Northwest, 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 an article on literary theory, I made a special trip to Lanzhou University to look up information. Later, at the invitation of Ke Yang, the then director of the Chinese Department, I gave a literary lecture entitled "The Past and Present of Stream-of-Consciousness Novels and Their Development History in China".

Eighteen years passed in the blink of an eye.

This school doesn't seem to have changed much from before, except that there are some 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. 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 us has a rich collection of books and provides Internet access.

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

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

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

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

The literature lecture was held on Saturday afternoon, May 5. Lei Da arrived at the Second Move Hall in advance and accompanied Fang Minghua.

It was still early, and the two were chatting in the room.

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

"It's 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 to say, you'll easily be "beaten up" by students."

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

"It was mainly aimed at his award-winning novel. The doctoral students in the Chinese Department criticized his novel for being too readable but not literary enough."

oh.
In fact, this is also a criticism of the new realist novels that are popular in the literary world today. They are nice to read, but their shortcomings are gradually exposed: reformers are portrayed 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 profound. This is a common problem among writers born in the 1950s and 1960s, which is related to the lack of systematic education.

Otherwise, I wouldn't be scared by the theories of these master's and doctoral students.

"Minghua, you won't end up like what happened to Zhang Ping. Those students can't argue with you." Lei Da finally said with a smile.

shit
Is this a compliment or an insult to me?

At 2:30 p.m., the lecture was held on time in Wenxin Hall of Lanzhou University. The director of the School of Literature first gave an introduction, and there was warm applause in the auditorium.

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 currently popular personalized writing.

1. From the perspective of the experience content of the novel, personal writing expresses a kind of private experience, private consciousness and unconsciousness.
Second, in terms of writing style, most personal writing adopts "new memoir" or "new biography" narrative. Whether it is Chen Ran's "Private Life" or Lin Bai's "One Man's War".
3. In terms of the author’s role, the author of private writing is a lowercase “I” (private), not a capital “I” (group, people or public spokesperson). 4. In terms of writing motivation, the driving force of private writing is personal psychological needs, especially unconscious and hidden desires.

For a full two hours, Fang Minghua explained in an easy-to-understand manner the causes, characteristics and existing problems of personalized writing.

Finally, there was warm applause 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 look up foreign language information now with the Internet.

Next is the stage where students ask questions, which is also the most troublesome issue for lecturers, as students ask a wide variety of questions.

“Is private writing the kind of private writing that some female writers advocate?”

"Can Lu Xun's novels be considered personalized novels?" Fang Minghua answered the questions one by one.

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

"Teacher Minghua, I attended a lecture by Professor Zhang Ping a few days ago. I strongly disagree with his view on the new realism literature. What is the difference between the protagonists in these novels and the great officials in ancient feudal society? I doubt whether there is no such type of novel abroad?!"

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

Some people asked what question you raised?
This is obviously off topic. If you want to ask, you should ask Zhang Ping, right?

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

Because he wrote a similar novel called "In the Name of People"!
However, the characterization of the protagonist in that novel is much more complete than that in "The Choice".

Fang Minghua decided to answer this question.

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

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

After a while, a quiet-looking girl stood up, and the host quickly handed her the microphone.
"In the 1980s, Italy saw the rise of new worker literature, and some novels appeared that were very similar in style to Professor Zhang Ping's "The Choice."

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

"I'm sorry, I've only read some literature on this subject, but I haven't done any in-depth research." The girl was a little embarrassed.

Fang Minghua didn't make it difficult for her. After she sat down, she said, "Then I will tell you about the new Italian workers' literature."

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

Characteristics of the Italian New Workers' Literature: rejection of the complaining style, adoption of critical humor, attitude of collective responsibility, transcending realist novels, and experimentation with different genres and modes of expression
Fang Minghua continued to talk for another half an hour, and finally said: "Let me answer the first question of this student. The character creation of "The Choice" does have the common problems of this type of novel, but this does not negate the excellence of this novel, nor does it negate the significance of the existence of this type of novel."

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

(End of this chapter)