Between Commonness And Greatness

In the latter part of the eighties in the last century, the neo-historical novel took over the banners to reflect upon history from search-for-roots literature, the avand-garde and the neo-realism writers of this genre subverted the values and historical conceptions conveyed in previous revolutionary historical novels when they narrate the history in the period between Republic of China and foundation of people's Republic of China. They get rid of political influences and write about this period from the perspective of the common people rather than from that of the state or the nation. Neo-historical novelists abandon the previous historical conception that history mover forward all the time. They reflect upon history and highlight its accidentality and uncertainty. By deconstructing the holiness and solemnity of history, neo-historical novelists show their humanitary concerns about man himself and their persistence on traditional history. In neo-historical novels, heroes are viewed as common people, and the history of the individual is highlighted out of the shadow of the big history. In this sense, the neo-historical novel is a parody of the holy history and a rebellion against the noble and the ideal. In novels of this genre , writers pay little attention to the reality of history but construct a history to their heart from their own perspectives. History is reduced to a history of the individual, that of the soul and family history. In neo-historical novels, accidentality dominates history and determines the fates of characters. History becomes incontinuous and full of accidental fragments. Writers of this genre view human desires as the inner motive that drive human to act and history forward, and their words illustrate their historical conception that "the whole history is a history of desires ."...