On Tragic Consciousness In Wang Anyi's Novels

Wang Anyi is an excellent writer in the contemporary literary world in China. The works she has written during more than twenty years since she set foot in the literary world attract the attention of the critical world because of her varied style. Since the 1990s, her novel become more mat- ual and its rich connotation enables the reader to comprehend it from dif- ferent angles. This paper tries to take the "ragic consciousness"that is seldom studied as its starting point, profoundly investigates Wang Anyi?s experience and struggle to the tragic condition of life that hide deeply in the novel and reveals her pitiful feelings toward the people in the same sit- uation because of the anguish and forlorness of life as well as her resistant spirit against fate that thought it is helpless, she is unwilling to bear it with equanmity. This paper is composed of four parts beside introduction and conclu- sion. Introduction gives a general view to the tragic consciousness and points out the author's understanding of Wang Anyi's tragic conscious- ness. The body expounds Wang Anyi's tragic consciousness from four an- gles. Part one: Sorrow of growth. Wang Anyi overturns the discription of the child's world in the traditional literary narration and crashes the sur- ?. face of happiness. The childhood discribed by her is not sweet and warm any more, but becoms sharp and anguishing. The conflict and crisis chil- dren confront in the course of their growth bring numerous hardships for them, and what is more, they have not possessed the ability to under- stand and express, so these anguishes that are insignificant to adults per- haps become significant to the children. The childhood experience is re- garded as the source and basis of individual experience. It also has a stead- fast influence on the formation of individual personality. The penetrating anguish of childhood evoloves into a kind of xistential anguish?that all human beings can not avoid after her philosophical distillation. Part two: The insignificance and fragility of individual?s existance. To present man?s insignificance and helpessness before fate and his effort to find out the truth of fate is the important motif of Wang Anyi?s nov- els. The essence of tragic menace is that people continuously feel that fate is controlled by a mysterious force. However, for the writes like Wang Anyi who take the development of the world and the change of society as her writting background, this mysterious force tends to become concrete control of political movement. Before the political movement, man like the fallen leaves in the autumn, is carried away. He has no right to choose his own fate actively and only can accept it passively in muddle. This is helpess sorrow. A Part three: The rebelling solitary hero. There is a series of olitary heroes?who rebel against the environments silently in Wang Anyi?s nov- els. Where and when they are born are their destiny that they are unable to choose, but beside this, to seek their own appropriate is the freedom to choose. During the struggle, solitary and anguish are its result and the circular fruitless action floods their career. This exploring spirit is the essence of the tragic consciousness. Part...