A New Direct Exploration Of The Soul

Can Xue has been writing since 1983 and has been a pioneer writer since 1985.No matter how the literary tide changes,she always sticks to her own philosophical theme: facing the core of the human spirit and exploring the depth and complexity of the soul.Her works are obscure and difficult,and although many readers are deeply shocked and stay at a respectful distance from her works,they provide critics with the possibility of diverse interpretations.Throughout Can Xue’s more than thirty years of literary creation,we can find that Can Xue’s creative style has taken a new turn in recent years,and the full-length novel The Gift of the Dark Earth Mother,published in 2017,focuses on Can Xue’s new explorations of writing tone and aesthetic style.The explorations are mainly reflected in these aspects: from the strong confrontation and deconstruction of the world in the previous writing to the reconstruction of the world of the soul,from the extreme presentation of absurdity and ugliness to the inner gaze of harmony and light,from the direct depiction of the surface of the external world to the poetic expression of the heart and soul.On the basis of the philosophical theme of inward exploration,The Gift of the Dark Earth Mother constructs a highly harmonious and free world of the soul with warm tones,which is beyond the real world.First of all,each character in this world is an alter ego of the soul,and the conflicts between the characters are the externalization of the conflicts between different sides of the soul.In the process of self-conflict and reconciliation,a person’s complete spiritual world is outlined.Women and children are not demonic beings,they realize the construction of idealized subjectivity in the dynamic structure of constant transcendence and division.A new kind of love relationship between the two sexes is constructed beyond the field of gender confrontation,and the novel is a prophetic conception of a highly free love activity.Secondly,space is no longer a static physical concept,but a dynamic factor with three-dimensional meaning,serving to build the soul world,and people no longer escape from the dirty space,but construct two different levels of space systems: "this shore" and "the other shore".Man’s cruising between the two spaces not only makes the spatial structure more three-dimensional,but also enriches his spiritual experience and expands his living space.Finally,the soul world has a "warm rationality",so the way of narrating the world is softer,reflecting the poetic communication characteristics in four aspects: narrative discourse,narrative mode,narrative situation and narrative communication.Today,Can Xue’s works are no longer cold,but are becoming warmer and richer.The Gift of the Dark Earth Mother provides us with an opportunity to see a new breakthrough in her exploration of the soul.This paper will take three perspectives--character,space,and narrative art to restore the soul world established by the novel,to understand the philosophical theme of inward exploration that she has been emphasizing,and to reveal the new aesthetic qualities that emerge from her new exploration.It will have some supplementary significance to the research on the subject of Can Xue.