A Study Of Mythological Poetics In Alai’s Novels

Mythological poetics refers to the literary creation method that writers consciously borrow traditional mythological factors and pay attention to the development of contemporary mythology.In the fictional mythological poetics,the traditional mythological elements such as mythological figures,mythological archetypes and mythological structures,and the contemporary mythological structures such as political myths,consumption myths and technological myths,are all incorporated into the novel,forming a paradigm of juxtaposition of traditional myths and contemporary myths.The fusion of "traditionality" and "contemporary" is an important feature of the mythological poetics of novels.Through the tool of myth,writers break the gap between the ancient mythological world and the rapidly developing contemporary society,activate the vitality of myth,and realize the creative transformation of mythological resources in the field of literature.As an important contemporary ethnic minority writer,Alai has been writing continuously since he entered the literary world in the 1980s,and has created literary works of different styles.On the one hand,the growing environment in the Tibetan region provided Alai with rich resources of ethnic myths.The creation experience of the project of"Myth Retelling" enabled him to explore the connotation of mythological heroic epics.His work experience as the editor of a science fiction magazine also enabled him to maintain a keen perception of the contemporary development of myths.On the other hand,as a contemporary writer,Alai has always maintained a reverence for literature,continued to pay attention to the development of contemporary society and reflect on the progress of human civilization.Therefore,through the case study of Alai’s novels,this paper discusses how contemporary literature inherits traditional myths and reflects on contemporary myths from four dimensions of politics,economy,science and technology and the practice of myth retelling,and then explores the path of creative transformation of myth resources in the field of literature.The details are as follows:The introduction part discusses the origin and significance of the research and the definition of relevant concepts,reviews the current research status of predecessors and points out the shortcomings,and on this basis puts forward the research methods of"Mythological Poetics" in this paper.The first chapter,"The Dust Settles-The Decline and Fall of Traditional Political Myth",starting from the political level.This paper holds that The Dust Settles tells the political myth of the decline and fall of Tusi culture.Firstly,combining with the historical development of the chieftain system,this paper explores the impact of secular emotion and the awakening of witches on the political myth.Secondly,combining the theory of carnival and Plato’s ideal society theory,this paper analyzes the four carnival activities of the core figures in the myth,and points out that the immoral behavior of the Tusi actually destroys the political myth.The second chapter,"King Gesar--Construction of New Mythological Belief",starting from the practice of mythological retelling.This paper makes a comparative analysis of the mythological retelling project "King Gesar" and the Tibetan Gesar epi,and holds that by adapting the myth plot and adding new characters,Alai transformed the belief of the people in the epic into the belief of the people themselves.The third chapter,"Three Treasures of Mountains--the return of the nature worship myth",starting from the economic level.This paper argues that the novel first criticizes the negative impact of excessive publicity of urban consumerism culture on the rural ecological environment and the simple people.Secondly,on the one hand,it shows the friendly relationship between people in the natural myth by depicting the sacred female images of suffering and the innocent children’s images;on the other hand,it describes the beautiful picture of the harmonious coexistence between human and nature by combining animism belief and explores the salvation road of returning to the natural myth.The fourth chapter,"Records in the Clouds--Mythological Breakthrough under Science and Technology",starting from the science and technology level.This paper holds that the novel first elaborates the response of myth to modern science and technology,that is,the traditional myth regards science and technology as its modern image or restricts it;Secondly,through the analysis of the priest Aba’s behavior of offering sacrifices to gods and soothing souls,this paper excavates the function of traditional myths to unite people’s minds and dispel fears.The conclusion part,this paper proposes that Alai’s creation provides a new way of thinking for the creative transformation of mythological resources in the field of literature.This idea combines "looking back" with "looking towards the present",which inspires the contemporary power of ancient myths and provides a new spiritual home for contemporary people in spiritual crisis.