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Over the past twenty years, Chinese novelist Yan Lianke has emerged as one of the most important writers in the world. In Discovering Fiction, Yan offers insights into his views on literature and realism, the major works that inspired him, and his theories of writing. He juxtaposes discussions of the high realism of Leo Tolstoy and Lu Xun against Franz Kafka's modernism and Gabriel García Márquez's magical realism, charting the relationship between causality, truth, and modes of realism. He also discusses his approach to realism, which he terms "mythorealism"-a way of capturing the world's underlying truth by relying on the allegories, myths, legends, and dreamscapes that emerge from daily life. Revealing and instructive, Discovering Fiction gives readers an unprecedented look into the mind and art of a literary giant.
List of contents
Translator's Introduction. Creating Reality and Surpassing Realism / Carlos Rojas ix
1. Realism's Four Levels of Truth 1
2. Zero Causality 35
3. Full Causality 51
4. Partial Causality 59
5. Inner Causality 83
6. Mythorealism 99
Appendix: Chinese Authors and Works 125
Notes 129
Bibliography 133
Index 137
About the author
Yan Lianke is the author of
Hard Like Water,
The Day the Sun Died,
The Explosion Chronicles,
The Four Books, and many other novels and story collections. Winner of the Franz Kafka Prize and a two-time finalist for the Man Booker International Prize, Yan teaches at Renmin University in Beijing and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Carlos Rojas is Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University. He has translated several of Yan’s novels, including
Hard Like Water,
The Day the Sun Died, and
The Explosion Chronicles.
Summary
Eminent Chinese novelist Yan Lianke offers insights into his views on literature and realism, the major works that inspired him, and his theories of writing.
