Literary Master 1978

In mid-July, the Literary Gazette was published.

A review article entitled "Lai Zi's Summer: The Pioneer of Chinese Stream of Consciousness Literature" attracted the attention of the literary world and literature lovers.

As a critic, the author of the article, Yan Gang, has considerable weight in the domestic literary criticism circle.

Last month, he read Lai Zi's Summer and had some feelings. He also communicated with his wife Liu Yin, and finally wrote this article "Lai Zi's Summer: The Pioneer of Chinese Stream of Consciousness Literature", which was also successfully published in the Literary Gazette.

In the article, he used a lot of space to explain Lin Chaoyang's bold innovation in the imported literary genre of stream of consciousness literature in Lai Zi's Summer. Between the lines, it is hard to hide his appreciation for Lin Chaoyang and this work.

"The narrative perspective of "Lai Zi's Summer" switches between the perspectives of the protagonists Lai Zi and Xiao Jun. The author has made a bold challenge to the narrative structure of stream-of-consciousness literature, and does not follow the traditional, jumping narrative rules of stream-of-consciousness literature.

Instead, the symmetrical narrative structure presents the changing process of the two protagonists' thoughts, emotions, memories and even subconsciousness.

This presentation method is not a realistic linear narrative, nor is it a jumping, fragmented narrative of stream-of-consciousness literature, but a spiral narrative method in which you have me and I have you.

Both symmetry and integration make the space, time and character relationships within the text present a complex and rich interweaving state, greatly enhancing The artistic expression and reading experience of the work.

This narrative method can be said to be unprecedented, and it is also an important breakthrough in the creation of stream-of-consciousness literature so far, and it is a truly pioneering experiment.

…

In the novel, Lai Zi and Xiao Jun's inner world forms a subtle and profound interactive relationship with the external environment.

The author reflects the common psychological characteristics of adults and adolescents in China's social transition period through the psychological changes, emotional fluctuations and value concepts of the protagonists in a specific social background.

At the same time, the author believes that "Lai Zi's Summer" is not just a work that simply imitates Western stream-of-consciousness literature, but a work based on the Chinese social and cultural context. Excellent work that has made innovative explorations in the form of local characteristics.

"Lai Zi's Summer" incorporates a large number of cultural symbols and images with Chinese local characteristics, such as traditional festivals, folk customs, family education concepts encountered on the road, etc. These elements are integrated with the protagonist's inner world.

It not only enriches the cultural connotation of the text, but also gives the work a distinct Chinese color.

This precise grasp and unique expression of the Chinese context has enabled "Lai Zi's Summer" to successfully achieve localized innovative transformation while drawing on Western stream-of-consciousness techniques, opening up a new path for the development of Chinese stream-of-consciousness literature.

…

This work not only demonstrates the author's keen insight into the individual's spiritual world, but also With its groundbreaking narrative style, it leads readers into an inner world full of philosophical thoughts, emotional surges and the characteristics of the times, demonstrating the unique charm and innovative value of Chinese stream-of-consciousness literature.

In the vast starry sky of contemporary Chinese literature, "Lai Zi's Summer" is like a bright star. With its unique artistic techniques and profound ideological connotations, it has established a monument for the development of Chinese stream-of-consciousness literature. "

Yan Gang wrote this article "Lai Zi's Summer: The Pioneer of Chinese Stream-of-Consciousness Literature", which is nearly 10,000 words long. It discusses the literary and originality of the novel "Lai Zi's Summer" from multiple perspectives. The viewpoints are clear and the insights are unique. In just a few days, it has caused a great response in the domestic literary circles.

At the end of the article, "Lai Zi's Summer" was evaluated as "a monumental work of Chinese stream-of-consciousness literature", which is enough to show his appreciation and respect for this novel.

"Lai Zi's Summer" was published in the second issue of "Contemporary" this year, and it has been nearly three months since then.

During this period, the second issue of "Contemporary" sold more than 380,000 copies, which is almost a 200% increase compared to the sales of the first issue this year.

As the headline work of the second issue, "Lai Zi's Summer" is naturally indispensable. Such sales growth also fully reflects the readers' love for this novel.

Hundreds of thousands of readers are addicted to the psychedelic fairy tale world woven by Lin Chaoyang, and they are unable to extricate themselves. They are moved by the story of Lai Zi and Xiaojun and shed tears.

The novel has gained an excellent reputation among readers and has received rave reviews from critics.

Unlike readers who pay more attention to the story, the focus of critics on this novel is on the novel's pioneering creative techniques and style.

Those critics and scholars who study contemporary literature have a much better understanding of stream of consciousness literature than ordinary literary lovers and the public.

As an important school of modern Western literature, the rise of stream of consciousness literature has contributed a group of outstanding writers and works to the world literary world.

Everyone knows that compared with foreign countries, the development of stream of consciousness literature in China is undoubtedly extremely weak, but it is precisely because of this weakness that Lin Chaoyang's "Lai Zi's Summer" is even more valuable.

When most domestic writers still considered stream-of-consciousness literature to be rare and many people had never even heard of it, Lin Chaoyang was already able to use mature creative techniques to complete a long stream-of-consciousness novel of outstanding quality.

For many critics and scholars who have done some research on stream-of-consciousness literature, they generally believe that "Lai Zi's Summer" has reached the level of many foreign stream-of-consciousness novels.

Before Yan Gang, the literary world had already praised the novel "Lai Zi's Summer", but most critics and scholars still thought of the novel as an extension of the style of Western stream-of-consciousness literature.

Although many review articles also mentioned the local elements in "Lai Zi's Summer", they did not attract enough attention from the critics, and most of them were just mentioned in passing.

Yan Gang's article was like a loud bell, which opened up the minds of many domestic literary critics and scholars.

After reading the article, many people thought more and more that it was true.

As the article said, "Lai Zi's Summer" enriched the content of the novel with a lot of Chinese local cultural conformity and intention, which can be said to have pioneered Chinese stream-of-consciousness literature.

These people then thought of Lin Chaoyang's creative process. The creation of "Lai Zi's Summer" not only tests whether Lin Chaoyang has fully understood the core of Western stream-of-consciousness literature.

What is more important is whether he can use them in the creative process, maintaining the original unique style of stream-of-consciousness literature while taking into account the integration of Chinese cultural elements.

Facts have proved that Lin Chaoyang did it. He created a masterpiece of stream-of-consciousness literature that combines the characteristics and styles of Eastern and Western cultures.

When those critics and scholars were inspired by Yan Gang's article and realized this, they seemed to have opened the door to a new world at once, and their thinking was no longer bound.

Within just half a month, many literary magazines and literary review magazines such as "October", "Yanjing Literature and Art", "Hebei Literature and Art", "Literary Review", and "Literary Hundreds" successively published review articles on "Lai Zi's Summer".

Most of the authors of the articles are well-known critics in the commentary circle, or well-known scholars in universities.

Coincidentally, the keywords of these articles all focus on the term "Chinese stream-of-consciousness literature" first coined by Yan Gang.

The article "On Lai Zi's Summer: The Origin of Chinese Stream of Consciousness Literature" published in "Literary Hundreds" wrote: The deep excavation and true reproduction of the individual spiritual world fully demonstrates the charm of stream of consciousness literature, making Lai Zi's Summer a model of Chinese stream of consciousness literature.

"Lai Zi's Summer Behind the Regional Characteristics and the Imprint of the Times" published in "Hebei Literature and Art" said:

The success of Lai Zi's Summer lies in its organic combination of stream of consciousness literature and local culture. This combination is ingenious. It constructs a text environment that has both distinct regional colors and individual spiritual insights.

It is not only an excellent representative work of Chinese stream of consciousness literature, but also a deep exploration and vivid interpretation of China's social and historical changes and the individual spiritual world.

The article "Lai Zi's Summer Reconstructs Stream of Consciousness Literature" published in "October" explained:

"Lai Zi's Summer" faithfully follows the basic principles of stream of consciousness literature, but does not stop at imitating and reproducing traditional techniques, but makes bold innovations and expansions.

The work deeply embeds regional characteristics and the background of the times into the structure and narrative, broadens the expression dimension of stream-of-consciousness literature, and successfully breaks the closedness and individualistic tendency of stream-of-consciousness literature.

It is closely connected with the broad social reality and the deep cultural soil, giving the work a richer and more diverse cultural connotation.

The author successfully reconstructed the creative form of stream-of-consciousness literature with a unique innovative spirit and profound artistic skills, making it rejuvenated in the context of Chinese culture, achieving a high degree of unity between artistic form and social content, and providing a model for the creation of Chinese stream-of-consciousness literature in the future.

…

Originally, Lin Chaoyang became famous in the literary world recently because of the news that General Manager Hu bought the single volume of "Wreaths under the Mountains" at his own expense and gave it to the frontline soldiers.

Now the major literary magazines and literary review magazines have suddenly published a series of comments, which immediately triggered a trend of interpreting "Lai Zi's Summer" in the literary world.

Let Lin Chaoyang shine in the literary world again. Counting the influence of the public opinion of the National Excellent Short Story Award in the spring, this is the second time this year.

Compared with the last time, this time the impact was greater and more extensive.

Lin Chaoyang not only popularized the fashionable concept of stream-of-consciousness literature to domestic readers with Lai Zi's Summer, but also created a unique style of Chinese stream-of-consciousness literature, which was highly praised by the critics.

For a while, writers, critics, and scholars were proud to interpret Lai Zi's Summer. This trend continued to spread and also caused a strong response among readers.

The most obvious change was that the second issue of Contemporary, which published Lai Zi's Summer, had been selling well for nearly three months and its sales had stabilized.

Unexpectedly, with this favorable wind, the editorial department of Contemporary received calls from Xinhua Bookstore and post offices in various places urging them to reprint.

The heated discussions and praises in the literary world and the pursuit and love of readers converged into an unstoppable torrent, making Lai Zi's Summer the most influential phenomenon-level work in the Chinese literary world in the summer of 1980.