A paper on root-seeking literature?

On the "root" pursued by root-seeking novels

Root-seeking literature is a literary form with the theme of "cultural root-seeking". In the mid-1980s, there was an upsurge of "cultural root-seeking" in China literary world. Writers began to explore traditional consciousness and national cultural psychology, and their creation was called "root-seeking literature". 1985, Han Shaogong took the lead in proposing in a programmatic paper "The Roots of Literature": "Literature has roots, and the roots of literature should be deeply rooted in the cultural soil of national traditions." He proposed to "transcend the real world and base on reality at the same time, revealing some mysteries that determine the development of the country and the survival of mankind." Under this theory, writers begin to create, which is called "seeking the roots" in theoretical circles. It originated from the rising "cultural craze" in China and the influence of foreign literature, especially inspired by Latin American magic. More importantly, the emergence of root-seeking cultural trend of thought is also the inevitable result of the development of literature itself in the new period.

"Root-seeking novel" is a creative phenomenon in the literary trend of thought of "root-seeking" in the mid-1980s. Although it has had a wide influence on the development of literature in the new period, there is no consistent view so far because of the ambiguity and uncertainty of its connotation. Simply put, "root-seeking novel" refers to a novel aimed at re-understanding and rethinking the Chinese nation and its cultural heritage. However, root-seeking, as a trend of thought, has the same pursuit tendency. At the same time, due to different understandings of "root", root-seeking novels show complex diversity in aesthetic expression and theme intention in specific creative practice. So what kind of culture is the root-seeking novel looking for and what is its "root"?

Similarly, in terms of aesthetic expression and theme intention, root-seeking novels are mainly divided into historical and cultural root-seeking novels, religious and cultural root-seeking novels and natural regional and cultural root-seeking novels. From these four aspects, the "roots" sought by root-seeking novels are different.

The cultural conflict between China and the West caused the root-seeking consciousness of historical and cultural root-seeking novels, and the May 4th Movement and the Cultural Revolution led to the rupture of national culture, thus affecting the pace of literature going to the world. Therefore, their root-seeking is a traditional cultural philosophy, mainly reflected in the pursuit of traditional literature and culture. They believe that the first thing to do in root-seeking novels is to consciously "continue" contemporary literature with thousands of years of traditional culture. Historical and cultural root-seeking novels mostly reflect modern people's lives, but mainly show the long-distance echo and profound shock of national spirit caused by traditional culture in contemporary people's lives, aiming to point out that no matter how heavy the historical burden is, the traditional cultural spirit is still in our lives, affecting the process of our national life. Among them, it is mainly reflected in the contemporary value and significance of the history and culture of Confucianism and Taoism. For example, Acheng's "Three Kings" (Chess King, Tree King and king of the children) have made a contemporary interpretation of Laozi and Zhuangzi's thoughts; Reflections on Confucian benevolence and righteousness in Wang Anyi's Xiao Bao Zhuang and Zheng Yi's Yuan Cun Lao Jing. The Taoist cultural characteristics of Wang Yisheng in Chess King are: doing nothing and doing everything; Transcendent contentment; The natural behavior of eating and the detached lifestyle of chess are manifested in the external objective reality world and the internal mood world-the emphasis on optimism and the reflection on detachment; In Bao Xiaozhuang, the conflict between ethics and power and material power is expressed through the symbol of benevolence and righteousness, which embodies the discussion of Confucian culture.

Literature has never lacked the influence of religious culture. After suffering, people seek comfort in religion, which provides soil for the development of religion. The writer's spiritual loss, realistic criticism of religion and the new aesthetic experience it provides enable the development of religious cultural novels. Therefore, the eternal conflict between soul and body becomes the root-seeking consciousness of root-seeking novels. "Where will the soul be placed?" The mystery of his life is the in-depth inquiry of religious and cultural root-seeking novels, and faith has become the root of literary pursuit. Under the strong impact of contemporary material desires, to some extent, people's determination has been completely destroyed, and their souls have nowhere to convert, which makes people's spirit fall into great loss and urgently seek the meaning of life. However, religious cultural novels mostly describe some deformed characters and their behavior patterns, which have strong metaphor and overall symbolism, criticize contemporary culture and yearn for a more connotative life spirit. For example, Daddy Daddy by Han Shaogong explores the relationship between it and Ah Q and the primitive thinking of Jitouzhai people through the image of a soldier, showing the deep psychological structure of national culture such as animism's worship and awe of nature, absurdity and chaos, and exploring the primitive way of looking at things of the Chinese nation in Chu witch culture; Zhang Chengzhi's "Canyue" and "History of the Soul" discovered the power of "thinking" through the search for Islamic culture.

The root-seeking significance of natural culture root-seeking novels points to the root of human existence and is the return to the root of human nature, that is, to the perceptual life that does not pursue rights, money and politics. It can be said that this is the pursuit of uncivilized primitive culture, which comes from the conflict between civilization and freedom: the more developed the social civilization, the greater the uncle who is divorced from human beings, and the greater the possibility of being alienated. So it is embodied in the yearning for vitality. Natural culture root-seeking novels mostly choose primitive wild natural landscape or closed and lagging humanistic environment to express life under natural economy, and are keen on shaping the image of ethnic minorities, primitive people or wild "outsiders". For example, Mo Yan's Red Sorghum, Acheng's Merry Everywhere, He Liwei's The Gold Miner and Baihua's There is a Daughter Country in the Distance all show that people who are outside the orthodox society are fighting against the harsh forces of nature and society. In the free communication between men and women, it also shows amazing primitive life force, free and easy life and death, and personality of love and hate freedom.

Local consciousness is the core of regional culture, and its prominence in the ideological trend of cultural root-seeking is based on the conflict between modern and traditional lifestyles represented by urban and rural areas. In the fear of social transformation, people's spiritual homes are constantly being broken, which makes modern people face the spiritual crisis of homelessness. Natural, quiet and peaceful homesickness has become a refuge for writers. Therefore, what it pursues is the return of rural homeland, which shows its trembling and avoidance of modernity. The outstanding feature of his novels is the portrayal of maternal images, in which maternal love becomes the main theme, such as My Far Green Ping Bay, The Story of Jumping in the Queue and his love for folk culture. For example, Zhang Chengzhi's Dark Horse gives a true description and in-depth analysis of the traditional psychological quality and customs of the Mongolian people, and explores the spiritual outlook of an ancient nation in the close relationship between history and reality and the conflict between civilization and ignorance.

Cultural root-seeking is essentially an artistic regression movement, which is manifested in the pursuit of "root" in different conflict areas, strengthening the national ideological tradition and folk cultural consciousness, and the root-seeking writers' recognition of national spirit and attention to traditional aesthetic experience, reviving the aesthetic consciousness of our national history and injecting our national unique aesthetic charm and emotion into the literature in the new period.