Language Carnival

As one of the landmark Chinese writers in contemporary literature, Wang Mengis also one of the most representative Chinese writers in the world. It is well knownthat the unique symbolic sign of his new era novels is the carnivalization language hehas created. As is often the case, he just piles or parallels sentence after sentence,word after word within one utterance at one bout, and deliberately makes suchhigh-density, information-abounding sentence patterns appear successively, thuscreating a novel language characterized by numerousness, gorgeousness,extensiveness and self-display, which, as a result, arouses a tense, strange chokyfeeling among readers while reading. This is the typical language feature of WangMeng's fiction since the ushering of the new era. This language style is employed byWang Meng so adroitly in the "season" tetralogy that to some extent, he evenoverruns it. It is no exaggeration to say that the "season" tetralogy completelysubverts the "glorious traditions" of Chinese fiction language which emphasizeconciseness and connotation, and declares the final molding of his carnivalizationlanguage. Generally speaking, the features of the carnivalization language which areexemplified by the "season" tetralogy are cluster-bomblike, miscellaneous, carefree,unrestrained and jolly. Academic research on this landmark writer has yielded fruitfulresults;however, research about the fiction language style comparatively lags behind.There exists a phenomenon of "four more and four less", namely, more descriptionand less analysis;more intuition and less theoretical dialysis;more synchronicanalysis and less diachronic analysis;more enthusiastic praise and less sober criticism.In this regard, academia should shun away from the successive shocks of greatsensation Wang has produced and sensibly make judgment as to whether to praise orcriticize depending on his actual language application rather than his tremendousimpact. It is advisable to praise what deserves praising and criticize what deservescriticizing by means of moderation.This paper is aimed at doing more work regarding the "four less". The authormakes an analysis of the features, art, causes and significance of the language styleembodied in the "season" tetralogy in order to grasp Wang Meng's carnivalizationlanguage in a more rational and systematic way. The central argument here is : thecarnivalization language, which Wang Meng applied excessively in the "season"tetralogy, is the natural development and inevitable maturation of his tendency to usethe carnivalization language in his previous novels. Although through languageliberation, he displayed the difficult course and great significance of the liberation ofthe Chinese people as well as the capability and flexibility the modern Chineselanguage can reach in manifesting the Chinese people's current living conditions andsurvival experience, yet the seriousness of the significance of works will beundermined and the writing achievement level will be lowered due to lack ofnecessary "literary self-discipline" and excessive challenge to the laws governing bothpragmatics of the Chinese language and literature reading. How to properly handle thefour relationships in language application so as to harness the carnivalizationlanguage with moderation and achieve the harmony between the signifier and thesignified, namely, the relationship between stretching and restriction, the relationshipbetween tradition-inheriting and "keeping pace with the times", the relationshipbetween self-surpassing and self-satisfaction, the relationship between learning othersand self-improving, is the greatest challenge confronted by the further developmentof Wang Meng's carnivalization language .For the time being, a considerable surplus and inflation of signifiers inevitablybrings the enormous quantity increment of the redundancy information and the invalidreading time. On the other hand , the inner elegance and lofty position of the Chineselanguage are subjected to the unprecedented impacts and challenges from without,thus causing the continuous decline of self-confidence and self-consciousnessconcerning the mother tongue. Against this cultural context, people have every reasonto call on the literature works, which are the incarnation of language art, to play amore significant role in combating for the safety of the Chinese language and alsohave every reason to expect Wang Meng , who enjoys a lofty position and hugeprestige, to function as much as possible in so doing.My dissertation will be carried out in the sequence of style characterization,generation mechanisms analysis, deeper cause exploration, impact value judgment,...