Modern and Contemporary Literature of Ocean University of China Briefly describe the narrative style of Lu Xun's novels "At the Restaurant" and "Hometown"...

The narrative identity and narrative posture of the first person in Lu Xun's novels

Wang Bin, Vice President of Lu Xun College of Literature

1. Wanderer mentality

In Lu Xun's novels, there seems to be a preference for narrators. The first-person narrator often appears as a wanderer. "At the Restaurant" begins with:

I traveled from the north to the southeast, took a detour to visit my hometown, and then arrived in S city. This city is only thirty miles away from my hometown. It can be reached in half a day by boat. I once worked as a teacher in a school here for a year. After the late winter snow, the scenery was desolate, and my laziness and nostalgia were connected. I actually stayed temporarily in the Loews Hotel in S City; this hotel was unlike any I had ever had before. The city is not very big, so I looked for a few old colleagues I thought I could meet, but none of them were there. I don’t know where they had dispersed. When I passed the school gate, the name and appearance had also changed, which was very unfamiliar to me. In less than two hours, my interest had already faded away, and I regretted that this trip had been such an eventful one.

The narrators of "Hometown" and "Blessings" also adopt the posture of wanderers. The difference from "At the Restaurant" is that "Hometown" and "Blessings" are wanderers who have returned to their hometowns. We don't know why the wanderer in "Blessing" returned to his hometown, but he seems to be in a low mood and was disturbed by his contact with Mrs. Xianglin; House, the mood is sad.

2. Depressed mentality

This mentality is prevalent among people at the bottom and non-bottom people. A typical example is the little guy in "Kong Yiji". From the age of twelve, he worked as a waiter in the Xianheng Hotel. Because he looked too stupid and was afraid that he would not be able to serve the patrons in long robes, he worked outside as "a boring job" specializing in warming wine. Although the short-clothed patrons outside are easy to talk to, there are also many who are nagging and confusing: "Although there is no dereliction of duty, I always feel a bit monotonous and boring. The shopkeeper has a fierce face and is very lively. "Only when Kong Yiji came to the store could he laugh a few times, so I still remember it."

Similarly, in "The Lonely Man", a character who once worked as a teacher in Shanyang also has a depressed mood. of. "I came to school for two months and didn't get a single penny, so I had to save even cigarettes." But I couldn't even keep such a job, and I was attacked by gentlemen. "I had to be extremely careful. As usual, even the cigarettes I smoked were careful not to scatter. "

When N in "The Story of Hair" did not overthrow the Qing Dynasty, he was insulted and attacked by various people in society because of cutting off his braid, which is understandable. After the Republic of China, he still felt depressed because N's ideals were still contrary to reality: "Is it reform? Where are the weapons? Is it work-study? Where is the factory?"

And in "Sorrow", the words "I" is even more enveloped in a depressing atmosphere. Because of their free union with Zijun, they were not tolerated by the old forces, so their love nest was destroyed by the dark wind and rain. This is not only depression, but also great sorrow, "regret and sorrow, for Zijun and for myself."

3. The mentality of hating cats and aversion to Peking Opera

In "The Rabbit and the Cat", there is such a narrative:

My reputation in the whole family is poor. A cat enemy indeed. I have harmed cats before, and I often spank them, especially when they cooperate. But the reason why I fought was not because they cooperated, but because they shouted so loudly that I couldn't sleep. I thought cooperation didn't require such loud shouting.

So I hate cats because they make loud and special noises during mating, which interferes with "my" sleep. The reason for "my" aversion to Peking Opera is also related to the "noise". There is only the beating of Dongdong Huanghuang in my ears. Moreover, the harsh conditions of the theater also made it difficult for "I" to adapt.

It is not difficult for us to find the corresponding experiences and psychology in Lu Xun for these three kinds of mentality. For example, the mentality of a wanderer.

The same is true for Lu Xun's first-person novels.

Among them, the novel in which the narrator does not intervene in the story is:

"Diary of a Madman". The preface of the novel is in classical Chinese, so the narrator "I" calls himself "Yu" accordingly. His role is only to discover the "madman's" diary and simply organize it: "There are errors in the language in the diary, and it is not easy to write a word; only the names of the people Although they are all from the village and are not known to the world, they are not related to each other. As for the title of the book, it will be written by me later and will not be changed. "

"The True Story of Ah Q". The narrator unfolds the story from the perspective of writing a biography for the subject. Although "I" made various explorations into Ah Q's surname in the first section, it never intervened in Ah Q's life journey.

The novel in which the narrator intervenes in the story is:

"The Story of Hair". The main body of the novel is N's self-narration, and the narrator "I" just listens to N's talk. When N noticed that "I" showed an air of unwillingness to listen, "I immediately shut up."

"At the Restaurant". "I" was Lu Weifu's classmate, and I met him accidentally in a restaurant. Like "The Story of Hair", "I" is just a character who listens to others. It's just that before listening, I was mixed with my wandering mentality.

What’s interesting is that the main subjects of these two novels are stories told by characters in “my” eyes, and the characters in the stories are all “me”. That is: "I" tells the story of another "I".

"A Little Thing". Through a thing "I" saw, I praise the rickshaw driver who dares to take responsibility. "I" is just a spectator.

"The Rabbit and the Cat". Just like the title, the main characters in the novel are rabbits and cats. "I" is still a bystander. However, the role of "I" is heavier than the above novel because "I" is prepared to punish those who are suspected of eating rabbits. cat.

"Duck's Comedy". Similar to the role of the narrator in "The Rabbit and the Cat".

"Kong Yiji". The boy in charge of warming the wine described Kong Yiji, his history and current situation, as well as the indifference and ridiculing attitude of others towards Kong Yiji through his contact with Kong Yiji.

"Blessing". "I" am a wanderer who returned to his hometown at the end of the lunar calendar. The day before he was about to return, I met Mrs. Xianglin and couldn't help but connect the fragments of her half-life story that I had seen and heard before.

"The Loner". "I" and Wei Lianshu "began with sending off and collecting, and ended with sending away and collecting." Through their interactions with each other, Wei Lianshu's unfortunate and weird life was described.

Although the narrator is involved in the story in the above chapters, it is only at a superficial level. The narrator is only a precursor to the main characters, and at most a foil character.

"Hometown". Showing the relationship between "I" and Runtu.

"Social Opera". The adult "I" tells an experience of the childhood "I". There is an overlapping phenomenon between the narrator and the characters.

"Sorrowful Death". "I" is both the narrator and the main character. The narrator and the characters are integrated.

Compared with the narrator of "Kong Yiji", "Sorrow" also involves intervention, but the degree of intervention is essentially different. In the former, the narrator and the characters, at least the main characters, are separated. The narrator is only a witness and recorder of the story. Here, the narrator and the characters completely overlap.

As mentioned above, the narrator of "Diary of a Madman" calls himself "Yu" in the preface. The reason is that the preface is in classical Chinese. Correspondingly, the narrator "I" can only be in classical Chinese. the first person in . This is a factor, but only superficial. The underlying factor is that after this narrator "I", there is another narrator "I" who appears as a "madman":

Tonight, the moonlight is very good.

I haven’t seen him for more than thirty years, but I felt particularly refreshed when I saw him today. Only then did I realize that I had been in a daze for more than thirty years; however, I had to be very careful; otherwise, why would the Zhao family’s dog even look at me?

My fear is justified.

What is the relationship between this "I" and "I"?

It is very obvious that "Yu" is at a high level and "I" is at a low level. "I" is created by "Yu".

In this way, the narrator is divided into levels, and the narrative is also divided into levels.

One narrator provides another narrator, and the layering of narrators can create the illusion of narrative truth. The narrator who provides the narrator is called a supernarrator. The narrative layer of the super-narrator is called the super-narrative layer accordingly.

This type of novel usually takes the form of a discovered manuscript. To put it simply, the narrator "I" discovers a manuscript and publishes it. The manuscript of the novel is the main body.

"Diary of a Madman" adopts this super-narrator narrative method.

The narrative style of "The True Story of Ah Q" is similar to "Diary of a Madman". In the first section of this novel, the narrator "I" is the person who wrote the biography of Ah Q, and "I" "Yu" has the same status, they all do not intervene in the story, and they all retire after the first section, leaving the narrative responsibility to others. "Diary of a Madman" is given to the author of the diary, a madman. Through the form of the madman's autobiography, the main body of the text is expanded, changing from "other" to "I"; "The True Story of Ah Q" is also the narrator "I", in After entering the first section, he retreats, handing over the narrative power of the text to a third party, and, like "yu", never appears again. This narrative posture creates an objective and calm style.

"Blessing" is slightly different. First, the narrator "I" immediately retreats after introducing Xianglin's wife, handing over the power of narration to others. Others' narratives can be broken down into three parts. ⑴The narrative of an unknown person, ⑵The narrative of Old Mrs. Wei, ⑶The self-narration of Sister Xianglin. These three parts constitute the main body of the novel.

However, at the end of the novel, the narrator "I" appears again:

I was awakened by the loud sound of firecrackers nearby and saw a bean-sized The yellow light was shining, and then the crackling firecrackers were heard. It was the fourth uncle's family who was "blessing"; I knew it was almost the fifth watch. In my haziness, I vaguely heard the continuous sound of firecrackers in the distance, which seemed to form into a dense cloud of sound throughout the day, sandwiched with flying snowflakes, embracing the whole town. I felt lazy and comfortable in this noisy embrace. All my doubts from the day to the first night were swept away by the blessed air. I just felt that the saints in heaven and earth were all drunk from the wine and cigarettes. Staggering in the air, preparing to bring infinite happiness to the people of Lu Town.

In the text at the end of this paragraph, it is not difficult for us to understand the connotation behind the text and realize the extension of "happiness". The reason why the narrator adopts this complex form of "appearance-retreat-appearance" is nothing more than to reaffirm the narrator's attitude. In this regard, "Hometown" and "She Opera" are similar to it. At the end, point out the main point. In this way, the novel takes twists and turns, progresses in hesitation, and the ending negates the beginning. Compared with "Diary of a Madman" and "The True Story of Ah Q", this creative technique is naturally much more complicated.

In the early 20th century, Russian formalist scholars noticed the phenomenon of unreliable narrative in novels. When the narrator's narrative tendency makes the reader doubtful, we call such a narrative unreliable narrative. Such narrators are called unreliable narrators.

In April 1919, Lu Xun published the short story "Kong Yiji" in Volume 6, No. 4, of "New Youth". The narrator in the novel is a boy who is responsible for warming wine. Through his perspective, he portrays the image of a poor intellectual who was destroyed by the old system. At that time, it goes without saying that the theme of the novel was profound, and even today, it is filled with lasting artistic charm. The problem is that the young man is an uneducated person; the text of "Kong Yiji" is elegant and profound. How can the young man tell such a text? In other words, the boy’s narrative is unreliable, and this unreliability comes from many aspects, such as age, discourse, culture, values, aesthetics, etc.

We might as well conduct a brief analysis from the perspective of narrative and discourse:

Someone shouted, "Kong Yiji, you have a new scar on your face!" He did not answer, but said to the cabinet, "Wen Liang A bowl of wine and a plate of fennel beans." Then he paid nine cents. They deliberately shouted loudly: "You must have stolen someone else's things again!" Kong Yiji opened his eyes and said, "How can you accuse someone of innocence out of thin air..." "What innocence? I saw you steal something the day before yesterday. The books at home are hung and beaten." Kong Yiji blushed and the veins on his forehead popped out, and argued, "Stealing books cannot be considered stealing... stealing books can be considered stealing! What?" Then there were some unintelligible words, such as "a gentleman is poor" and "he is so", which made everyone burst into laughter; the atmosphere inside and outside the store was filled with joy.

On several occasions, the neighborhood children heard the laughter and joined in the fun, surrounding Kong Yiji. So he gave them fennel beans to eat, one for each of them. After the child finished eating the beans, he still stayed with his eyes looking at the plate. Kong Yiji panicked, stretched out his fingers to cover the plate, bent down and said, "Not much, I don't have much anymore." He straightened up and looked at the beans again, shook his head and said, "Not much, not much! Not much!" Not much." Then the group of children left laughing.

The classic details of "discharging nine cents of money" and Kong Yiji's unique words of "How much is it? Not much" are certainly beyond the young man's narrative ability, thus making it inevitable for careful readers to Don’t get bogged down in doubts.

There is no doubt that the young man’s narrative is unreliable. The young man does not have such narrative ability. The young man’s narrative is just a narrative gesture. There must be another narrator behind it. This narrator is called the second narrator.

In the creation of novels, when the narrator is an uneducated or low-educated character, this kind of narrative contradiction often occurs.

For example, the novel "Moby-Dick" by the 19th-century American writer Melville. The narrator Ismael also adopts the first person. Ismael is a sailor and an uneducated person, but his narration is quite educated. There must be a narrator behind him too.

Ismael and the boy are both uneducated people, but the author does not consider their identities, which makes the readers suspicious.

Among Lu Xun's novels, "Kong Yiji" is the only text that chooses a low-level character as the narrator. However, unreliable narrative phenomena appear, and the reasons are thought-provoking.

After readers realize this problem, they still accept the truth of the text because of other factors. Such as image, details, language, theme, style, cultural taste, regional flavor, etc.

In short, it is their texts, not only the simple narrators, Ismail and the little boy, but also the stories and characters they tell.

There are many factors that make up a novel. The authenticity of the narrator’s identity is only one factor, not the decisive factor. Because, ultimately, the narrator is just a matter of strategy.

From this perspective, the unreliability of the boy as a narrator does not affect the textual value of "Kong Yiji" as a modern Chinese classic novel. Moreover, precisely because of the unreliability of the narrator, it provides a rather broad space for thinking for reading and research.