On Strategies And Significance Of Depicting Miseries In The Works Of Yian Lianke

In the contemporary literary circle of China, Yan Lianke is an industrious and prolific "peasant writer." He is labeled as a "peasant writer" because most of his works concern about the life of peasants. He is also among the group of writers who have been insisting on miseries as the subjects of their writings.With the strategies adopted by Yan in his depicting miseries as the starting point, this thesis would conduct a research on how Yan depicts the world of miseries, and on three motifs embodied in the world of miseries, and on the relationship between female destiny and miseries. Furthermore, there is a discussion of the significance of Yan's writing about miseries in the modern context.Yan usually maintains that the following motifs are expressed in his writings: first, power worship; second, city worship; last, health worship. This thesis would argue that it is by these three worships that Yan depicts his world of miseries. In addition, this thesis would argue that concerning with females is another strategy employed by him to depict the world of miseries.There are mainly two parts in this thesis. In the first part, the focus is put on the four strategies adopted by Yan to depict his world of miseries. The first strategy is to depict the world of miseries by the power worship of protagonists. There are three reasons for protagonists' power worship: power could change their personal sad living condition when their personal lives are sad; power could bring a sense of gratification to the protagonists leading a community off sadness and poverty when the whole community is in sufferings; power is acquired by the protagonists by taking advantage of the miseries of others. The second one is to depict the world of miseries through protagonists' worship of life. The third one is to depict the world of miseries by means of protagonists' worship of city. The last one is to depict the world of miseries through female destiny.In the second part, this thesis would have a discussion of the significance of Yan's writing about miseries in contemporary age of "small potatoes' literature."...