The Study Of Memory Narrative By Lao She

Chinese writer Lao She, famous for the "Beijing taste" and national characteristics, has a sentiment and profound thought towards memory. On the basis of Lao She's writing, this paper analyzes and combs the memory in Lao She's works.From the three dimensions of personal memory, other's memory and collective memory, this paper finds out Lao She's memory orientation: childhood memory,memory of relatives and friends and memory of time and environment. These memories reflect Lao She's inner thoughts: the demands of Lao She's self-construal——self-pessimistic consciousness of Eschatologists' lives, awkward identity and contradictory character; the promotion of the "soft and hard" national character and the idea of "creating human beings"; the strong national consciousness of the"national first" and "Beijing is the treasure". At the same time, this paper summarizes the two characteristics of the memory writing. The first one is the emotional structure of the work. Based on the symbolism, disorder and no logic, Lao She conveys an emotional experience. The second one is imitation structure, which is embodied in the pattern of fate and "Three Principles". These characteristics form the unique style of Lao She's memory narration. Finally, this thesis investigates the personal and political reasons for abandonment of usual method and explores the personal meaning and historical significance of Lao She's memory writing. The twentieth century called for that literature must bear the historical mission of reform, agitation and praise. Since his Manchu identity (the most important factor), lack of personal experience and economic pressure, Lao She's memory writing encountered a lot of difficulties.However, his powerful memory and his tough character helped him constantly break through the difficulties in reality and still keep awake towards our nationality and himself. Lao She's insistence and vacillation not only show his contradiction between individual thought and historical will, but also conveys a strong social and political ethics on the development and restriction of individual life. In the tug-of-war between memory and reality, Lao She isolated him from the dislocation of time and the change of the times. And just because of his memory retrieved, Lao She has found the final return of the soul and embodies his independent spirit of intellectuals.