Desolation And Tenderness-the Aesthetic Formation Of Chi Zijian’s Fictional Works

The aesthetic formation of Chi Zijian’s fictional works consists of desolation, the persistent background of life for her, and tenderness,a belief with which she embraces the world. The tenderness aspect has been the predominant focus of literary criticism, whereas the desolation aspect often receives insufficient attention, at times neglected outright. The few studies there are on the harshness and somberness in her style, limit themselves to describing the changes in her style over the recent years, rather than grasping in its entirety desolation as her reference frame. Given such a deficiency in existing studies, in this thesis we attempt an overview of the origins and the manifestations of desolation in Chi Zijian’s works, and there of a summary of the interactions between desolation and tenderness, by analyzing the original texts and reviewing the career path of Chi as a writer. We intend this thesis to enrich, as well as to counter balance,the existing studies on tenderness as a keynote in Chi’s works.This thesis has three parts:In part one, we seek to understand the roots and significance of the "desolation complex" in Chi’s works-manifested as broken families,greed and selfishness in humanity, and hopeless loves-by uncovering her own life experiences. Among the factors influencing Chi’s aesthetic judgments in literary creation, her life experiences,especially her childhood experience of deprivation, play a crucial role in the formation of her desolation complex. The three manifestations of the complex, as mentioned above, cannot be fully grasped without first experiencing Chi’s life vicariously, and tracing her emotions through every joy and every sorrow.In part two,we study the paternalism of salvation. In Chi Zijian’s works, the warmth is essentially harmonious beauty. In short, Chi Zijian’s paternalism is a light, ethereal, plain Land of Peach Blossoms. She is wandering there, creating a harmony, comfortable and simple life atmosphere.In part three, we study the three basic interaction modes between desolation and tenderness in Chi’s fictional works. The three modes are:1.Tenderness weaving together the threads of desolation;2. Water-like tenderness confronted by mountain-like desolation; and3.Tenderness and desolation blending together in a primeval harmony. In Chi’s works, desolation and tenderness are not invariably on equal footings. In certain works she attempts to weave together the threads of desolation with such embodiments of tenderness as parental love and kindness, hoping that desolation can be covered up when it is thickly woven over, and that the hopelessness and desperation ensuing from desolation can be dispelled effortlessly. Yet desolation, as a background and essential part of life for Chi Zijian, is an insurmountable mountain that blocks the flow of the stream of tenderness, and all the unsettling nooks and crannies in both external and internal worlds are revealed in contrast to its overwhelming presence. There are certainly also occasions in which desolation and tenderness co-exist in Chi’s works in a more or less peaceful fashion.Through these three basic modes, desolation and tenderness form a synthesis in Chi’s fictional works, each ebbing and flowing and giving rise to the other.A complete understanding of Chi Zijian’s works would be impossible, without a proper evaluation and an in-depth knowledge of her time-worn desolation, her preordained background of life. It would be further necessary, among the desolation, to hold up a lantern of tenderness,and search for the trail to reconciliation, in order to appreciate on a fundamental level the uniqueness and significance of her fictional works in the literary history.