On Life Consciousness In Chi Zijian's Novels

In contemporary Chinese literary circles, Chi Zijian is a special figure and often excluded from the mainstream writers. Her works are mostly focused on her native land and the common people surviving in the lower strata of the society. Sparing her lines for the significant events or the thrilling plots which can best absorb the readers' attention, she pays her compliments mostly to the nobodies, and makes them be filled with extraordinary power which touches the readers deeply and soundly. The reason for Chi Zijian to do that is that she desires to express her concern about nature, her reverence for life, and herpraise for human nature, all of which makes up the essence of her novels------life consciousness. Startingfrom the angle of life consciousness, this thesis aims at digging out the connotation lying beneath Chi's novels by analyzing them from multiple positions. The thesis can be divided into three parts:The first part introduces Chi's special life experiences and the effects they have on her special concern for life consciousness and her comprehension of the theme. They are mainly derived from her childhood experience of having been lived in the North Pole Village (a remote village in northeast of China), from which she has gained an opportunity to living closely to nature and feeling the simple andmodest local customs firsthand. The death of her father can also find trace in her novels------she createsa lot of portraits of fathers------and makes her show great enthusiasm on the subject of death.The second part provides five explanations to life consciousness in her novels: the deep concern for nature makes Chi's novels pictures depicting the coexistence and equality between man and nature, and nature has been made a dwelling for man's soul and endowed with a human disposition; the thinking about women's predicament makes her realize that though the plights women are in are closely related to men, the way to get out is not to merely fight against men but to liberate themselves from the deep consciousness; the unique portraying about death in Chi's novels makes readers forget about the dismay and emptiness it brings, but understand and memorize love so to enkindle the livings' hope for life; the enlightenment on a miserable life makes the readers shaken by the power of tragedy and at the same time sheds light on their expects and ideals for future; the tender way of presenting the power of human nature makes the writer pays more attention to the fates of the unimportant persons and extol human beings' kindness without avoiding touching the wickedness, with a short period of conflicting against each other, the opposing positions are finally eliminated by the warmness lying in human nature.The third part seeks inheritance for Chi Zijian's life consciousness from the black earth literature of northeast China. Obviously, Chi is deeply influenced by generations of writers from the same land as well as by the regional environment itself. Loving her native land so profoundly, Chi extols the magnificence of this beautiful piece of black land, exposes the hard life and warm-hearted folks, and reveals the respectable strong life will and power.The regional culture and life's connotation have had great effect on Chi's novels. Cherishing all things under the sun, Chi's interests unalterably lie in the plights humans have to endure and, from the persons with low social status, she has found the power of warmness which can survive the hardships. This unique writing style makes her novels filled with mercy and affectionateness, but, by concealing the cruelness of life, that also prevents her works advancing in depth none the less, as is the case with the limitations on life consciousness in her novels.