The Sinification Of Magical Realism

Root-finding literature, the first literary thought in the strict sense in the new historical period of China, took its appearance with both the guiding theories and works from the very beginning. Influenced by Magical Realism of Latin America, Chinese writers, in the hope of finding their own roots, reflected on the painful national history and strived for exploring the national culture. Being aware of the tragedy created by the national tradition, they desired for a reexamination of the tradition with the perspective of contemporary western civilization. As a group of writers harboring sense of national responsibility and obligation, they, inspired by the slogan "find our root", contributed a lot of great works with various forms, which have brought an unprecedented scene of prosperity for the Chinese literary since the end of Cultural Revolution.The interrelationship between Root-finding literature and Magical Realism as reception and creation is a distinct characteristic of the research on this topic. Based on the analysis of the development and features of Magical Realism and a "period of time --- typical writers" model, the present study explored the root-finding literature, an important form of sinification of Magical Realism. It showed the inheritance of root-finding literature from Magical Realism in four aspects: firstly, it made a re-recognition and re-explanation of the national culture in the esthetic sense, exploring the active essence of the national culture. Secondly, it appreciated the legacy of the ancient culture from the perspective of contemporary, with the attempt to find out the origin of the energy of life. Thirdly, it criticized the undesirable cultural elements in the present social life including the exploration and analysis of the national cultural psychology. Last but not least, in terms of writing technique, to show the reality, the root-finding literature usually exaggerated and deformed it in an absurd and weird way of presentation. In addition, the study gave a detailed explanation about the reason for the success of sinification of Magical Realism. It pointed out that the success lied in not only the inheritance, but the fact that root-finding literature, based on Chinese tradition and reality, surpassed successfully Magical Realism.Finally, the study analyzed the reason for the decline of root-finding literature home and abroad and provided solutions to shake off the embarrassing situation.