A True Record of Changing Times - Realistic Narrative and Emotional Expression in Cao Zhenglu's Nar
Abstract
Cao Zhenglu’s novel Nar (There/International) is considered to be one of the representative works of modern Chinese Diceng (Underclass) literature, published in 2004, depicting the impact on the underclass people against the backdrop of the reform of state-owned enterprises at the beginning of China’s reform and opening up. Starting from Cao’s Nar, this paper presents the background of the writing of Nar by sorting out the birth and basic meaning of underclass writing. It focuses on the narrative’s realism and the narrative-based emotional expression in Nar. Analyses the narrative characteristics of Nar, which uses modernist narrative techniques alongside the realistic narrative, and the artistic characteristics of Nar’s unique narrative perspective. Using Nar as an example, explore the intensity of the emotional expression caused by the intense rhythm of the narrative and the unique artistic and literary value of Cao’s novel in its use of metaphor and symbolic expression of emotion. As a representative work of Cao Zhenglu, Nar faithfully reflects the combination of realism and modernism in Cao’s fictional writing, allowing Chinese modernist literature to be reborn under his pen, freeing it from the shackles of “pure literature” that had been pursued for some time in the past for realist works.
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