Theme,Characters And Narrative Comparative Study Of Shen Congwen And Jia Pingwa's Urban Novels

Shen Congwen began his literary creation in 1924, he has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Jia Pingwa began to publish works in 1974, he has won the Mao Dun prize in literature and Prix Femina. Both of them never stopped working and created a lot of literary works which make them become one of best in modern and contemporary Chinese arena. The "Xiangxi" and "Shangzhou" in their works has gone beyond their realistic meaning and became an unique cultural region in local novels. The "city" word which is corresponding to the rural area is also distinctive.By comparing reading of their urban novels, we can see there are many similarities in theme, character and narrative and some differences between them.First of all, from the theme of the work, their life experiences are similar and the concept of literature also has overlap. Shen Congwen was born in Fenghuang in Hunan and made a living in Beijing after, while Jia Pingwa was born in Shanxi in the town of Dihua and gone to university of Xi'an. Both of them spent their youth time in the rural. The kindness and simplicity of the farmers and the natural beauty of the native land left a deep impression on them. Shen Congwen and Jia Pingwa are "the people of the countryside into the city" and have a long-term living in the city. They were always missing the ancient and unsophisticated land. They have been positioning themselves as "countryman" and "farmers" and are excluded and resistant of urban. In terms of the attitude towards modernization, Shen Congwen appears to be more sensitive and criticize the negative aspects of urban civilization comprehensively. While Jia Pingwa is more rational. He can not only see the city's lack of natural resistance, but also understands the modernization of the city represents the future direction of development.Secondly, in terms of the description of the characters, they focus on shaping the image of the three main characters:the image of intellectuals as the protagonist of urban culture, the image of urban women who have a number of different characteristics and the image of the underlying people struggling in the city. These urban characters are examined and explored from the perspective of "human nature". In the portrayal of the characters, Shen Congwen adopts the character description type of "see only a small part" while Jia Pingwa is using the figure description of panoramic display.Finally, from the narrative perspective and style, they mainly used the third person narrative omniscient while the first person narrative of Shen Congwen's urban novels has the characteristic of autobiography. In terms of the urban narrative style, Shen Congwen's urban novels are comical, while Jia Pingwa's urban novels are mysterious.