On The Death Writing In Zhang Xin’s Novels

Death plays a very important role in Zhang Xin’s novels.It is not only an important part of the content of Zhang Xin’s novels,but also an important formal factor,but also an important channel for meaning construction.On the basis of carefully reading the text,this paper comprehensively analyzes the death writing in Zhang Xin’s novels and excavates the value of death in Zhang Xin’s novels.This paper is mainly discussed from the following four aspects:The first part explores the psychological motivation of death writing in Zhang Xin’s novels,mainly from three aspects: life experience,reading experience and creative consciousness.Zhang Xin was born in the 1950 s and has experienced many major historical events.Among them,the historical event of the Cultural Revolution made Zhang Xin the first to realize death.During the Cultural Revolution,the deaths Zhang Xin witnessed left a deep impression on her as a young child.In addition to the impact of historical events,Zhang Xin’s experience as a health worker and nurse in the army has allowed her to witness many lives and deaths,which also affected the shaping of Zhang Xin’s outlook on death.The formation of a writer’s death consciousness is also related to her reading experience.The writing of death in Zhang Xin’s novels is more or less influenced by the writing of death in Cao Xueqin’s "A Dream of Red Mansions" and Zhang Ailing’s urban novels.Reading Zhang Xin’s novels will always remind people of the loneliness and disillusionment brought by "A Dream of Red Mansions" and the various death tragedies caused by the abnormal psychology of the characters in Zhang Ailing’s novels.The large number of deaths in Zhang Xin’s novels is also related to Zhang Xin’s creative consciousness.In an interview,Zhang Xin talked about the reason why she set up a large number of deaths,on the one hand,to enhance the readability of the novel,on the other hand,she hopes that the special event of death can be used to describe humanity.The second part analyzes the narrative mode of death writing in Zhang Xin’s novels.The writing of death in Zhang Xin’s novels is not only one of the links in the development of the story,but also a way to explore the life experience and mental state of urbanites.Under such exploration,three narrative modes of "chasing and losing","losing and returning" and "rational and out of control" in Zhang Xin’s novels have been formed.In the narrative mode of "chasing and losing",the story of death is a story of people’s continuous pursuit of material and constant loss.The process that urbanites keep chasing is actually a process of constant loss.The over-expansion of material desire will eventually become a deadly poison,causing the human body and spirit to die.In the narrative mode of "Lost and Return",a group of people who lost themselves in reality appeared.Some of them realized the unconscious return of the maternal body through suicide,and recovered their self-instinct;others realized the return of their self by facing the death of the closest person,regaining their long-lost self.In the narrative mode of "rationality and loss of control",successive deaths are actually out of control of reason.Behind the out-of-control rationality is that urbanites get rid of the depression and pain caused by morality and law,and reveal their true inner self in a cruel and bloody way.The third part discusses the narrative function of death writing in Zhang Xin’s novels.The writing of death in Zhang Xin’s novels played a role in mobilizing the plot,creating atmosphere and digging humanity in the narration.Death writing is an important means to mobilize the plot of Zhang Xin’s novels.Setting the death event at the beginning of the novel can give rise to the story and unfold the plot.In addition,the death event can also become a turning point in the story,deriving other events and promoting the development of the plot.Through a lot of death writing,it can also render the atmosphere of tragedy,set off the decadent atmosphere,highlight the absurd atmosphere,and give the novel a unique smell.From a deeper level,the writing of death is a special way to explore human nature in Zhang Xin’s novels,and it provides the narrative power for the novel.Zhang Xin’s novels express the torture and baptism of human nature by death,and describe the complexity and subtlety of human nature through death.The fourth part explores the deep meaning of death writing in Zhang Xin’s novels.The writing of death presents a rich and deep meaning in Zhang Xin’s novels.It contains Zhang Xin’s thoughts on the dilemma of human existence and self-construction in Zhang Xin’s novels.Zhang Xin’s novels expose people’s survival dilemma under the rolling of desire through death writing,and think about how people should construct themselves in an alienated world.In a series of death tragedies,Zhang Xin’s novels show people’s most real living dilemma.Excessive pursuit of material and nowhere to put the spirit together constitute the dilemma of human existence.The insatiable material desire and the need for belonging and love of blankness have led to various death tragedies.The death writing of Zhang Xin’s novels reveals that when individuals who escape the true existence are infinitely close to death,they will have the opportunity to escape from the alienated world and have to face their true self.Zhang Xin’s novels also present the mental anxiety of urbanites through death,trying to ease our anxiety about life and death.We cannot ignore the anxiety that survival brings us,but death is by no means the best way to escape anxiety.In the gap between "life" and "death",writers question the value and meaning of life.