The Soul Narrative In Chinese Modern Literature

Soul is an ancient item. The concepts of soul in China and the west are quite distinct from each other, and there are even a lot of differences in the inner fields of these concepts themselves. However, the key criterion used to judge the inner landscape is not the soul connotation in cultural logic, but lies in the fact that whether the act of literal narrative can internally generate particular"soul language": 1. individualism; 2. freedom; 3. confliction; 4. ultimateness. Therefore, the connotation of"soul"in soul narrative is: the spiritual entity with individualism, freedom, confliction and ultimateness existing in the materialized body. The external name of soul narrative lies in the communicative common point of view between concepts of soul in China and the west: 1.preexistence—the origin of human beings and the location of hometown. 2.this life—the construction and meaning of life and the immortality of life. 3. hereafter—the home after death. They altogether constitute the basis for soul narrative.On the premise that soul languages are shared, Chinese literature and its western counterparts form the poineering pattern of soul narrative respectively. They constitute historical origin of soul languages together. The trinity—literature as the way to convey ideas, literary narrative of modernism, and literary spirit of concerning the country and the time—constitutes the generative context of soul narrative and directly results in the lack of soul narrative. The appearance of Lu Xun, Cao Yu and Mu Dan as soul narrators in Chinese modern literature is intrigued by both internal and external factors, among which the humanistic resources close to soul language construct the external motivation of soul narrative while its external motivation lies in the fact that they take roots in their own times, make full use of aesthetic form by art strangeness, launch out the artistic exploitation of individual destiny and self nature, explore the lasting experience and conflicts in human beings'inner landscape, witness deeply the diminutive change of human hearts and pursue spiritual home to care life.To study soul narrative in Chinese modern literature as a kind of poetics, we must try to fix a relatively proper concept. As far as the forming mechanism of soul narrative is concerned, it should be provided with four dimensions at least: body dimension which portrays individual body perception and accumulates native experience of China; existence dimension which exposes existence dilemma and spiritual danger of individuals; repentant dimension which presents the cruel interrogation of soul and examination of the hell in oneself; ultimate dimension which faces life dilemma of lasting affliction and death, yelling out the ultimate call. Till here, we can decide a relatively stable concept: starting from rich body images, passing through the spiritual passage of individual existence, and producing particular repentant language through distinct narrative with tension, soul narrative is a kind of narrative behavior to explore in the crack and abyss of human nature the spiritual home where life is settled down. As for the writers of Chinese modern literature, the text feature created by Lu Xun, Cao Yu and Mu Dan quietly tallies with the forming mechanism of soul narrative.