The Intertwining Of Tradition And Modernity

In the history of Chinese contemporary literature, Jia Pingwa is one of the few extremelyproductive and influential writers with his own unique style and therefore, has attracted theattention of both literature critics and literary history writers.Jia Pingwa emerged as a writer in the late1970s when his short story Full Moon was published inShangHai Literature(Vol.3,1978)and won the National Award for Best Short Stories in the sameyear. He started writing novels in the late1980s and published his first novel Fuzao in1987. Sincethen Jia Pingwa wrote a large amount of influential bestsellers and grew into a famous andcontroversial professional writer.Jia Pingwa is a historic writer whose writing has exerted great influence among readers andaroused extensive interest and fierce controversy among critics. Many of his novels won awardshome and abroad. Besides Full Moon mentioned above, Fuzao, Feidu(The Abandoned Castle)andQinqiang(Shaanxi Opera)have won Pegasus International Literary Prize in America, Le prixFemina in France and Mao Dun Literature Award in China respectively. His writing has alwaysbeen closely related to the development of contemporary literature and to some extent, Jia Pingwacan be regarded as one of the most important representatives in Chinese contemporary literaturesince New Period.Jia Pingwa's literary strength is primarily reflected through his novels, Fuzao, Feidu(TheAbandoned Castle), Gao Laozhuang, White Night, Qinqiang (Shaanxi Opera), China, to namejust a few. The study on Jia Pingwa and his writing has begun since he started writing short stories.However, it should be noted that through the years the academic circle mainly focuses on thetraditional culture manifested in his writing: for example, literati atmosphere, local culture, theinfluence of Buddhism and Taoism, but fails to recognize the modernity in his novels andtherefore the real essence, value and significance of Jia Pingwa's writing are not fully and properlyrevealed. This dissertation argues that tradition and modernity coexist in Jia Pingwa's novels andare intricately intertwined with each other. Based on this, the research objective of this dissertationis to study the cultural characteristics in Jia Pingwa's novels and to investigate the complicatedethical state of the writer in the process of modernization. The key of the research is to understandthe contradictory feeling of the writer in the process of tradition being replaced by modern ideasand the transformation of social cultural connotation into the writer's psychological connotation inwriting and then into literary texts and figures.The dissertation is an attempt to evaluate Jia Pingwa's novels from a new angle. To be specific, bylooking at Jia Pingwa's novels as a whole, and by combining the methods of macro?é„„study andmicro?é„„analysis, social historical criticism and comparative study, the dissertation tries toinvestigate the writer's different artistic creation stage in detail, discover the inherent relationshipbetween different stages and manifest the intertwining of tradition and modernity reflected in hisnarration and implication, which has various display in his novels in different time. If Jia Pingwa'snovel is regarded as a process of life consciousness, there is an evolution from Fuzao to China. Inthis process, the tradition and modernity are mingled with each other, consciously or subconsciously, but for most time, modern context superimposes itself on the traditional spirit inhis writing. Modernity is ambiguous and sometimes even realized through the context. That is tosay, a traditional feature is strongly displayed and has overwhelmed modernity in Jia Pingwa'snovels. Meanwhile, as one of the most important writers since New Period, Jia Pingwa's writingreveals not only distinctive individualistic characteristics but also demonstrates the general spiritof the time. Therefore, it is significant and essential to relate his writing with the literary trendover the years in order to have a better understanding of the development of Chinesecontemporary literature.Considering the historical changes in Jia Pingwa's novels, the dissertation not only points out butalso discusses in detail the changes in cultural connotation and narrative method in different stagesof artistic creation and hence, every chapter concentrates on the prominent cultural connotationand literary significance of the writer in one period. The dissertation consists of six chaptersbetween an introduction and a conclusion. The introduction is a general review of Jia Pingwa'swriting and Jia Pingwa study in the past years, the problems and research method are also clarifiedin this part. Using Fuzao as an example, the first chapter discusses the mix of enlightenmentmodernity and patriarchal consciousness in his early writing. The second chapter analyzes theintellectual discourse in Jia Pingwa's novels with Feidu(The Abandoned Castle)and White Nightas examples. The third chapter investigates the mysticism narrative, its realistic implication andthe belief conveyed. The fourth chapter analyses the writer's belief about natural life, itsrevelation in literature and the significance to the modern society. The fifth chapter studies therecurrence of deep concern for social reality in the new century and changes after Gaoxing(Happiness). The sixth chapter probes into the writer's lament for traditional folk culture, therealistic narrative manifested in Qinqiang(Shaanxi Opera)and China, and the writer's explorationand explanation of realism. The conclusion sums up the arguments in the previous chapters.