Please wait a minute...
Frontiers of Literary Studies in China

ISSN 1673-7318

ISSN 1673-7423(Online)

CN 11-5745/I

Postal Subscription Code 80-982

Front. Lit. Stud. China    2023, Vol. 17 Issue (4) : 409-432    https://doi.org/10.3868/s010-012-023-0049-6
The Experiential Texture of Contemporary Rural Writing—On the Writing and Reading of Baoshui Village by Qiao Ye
Lu Yang
Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
 Download: PDF(1468 KB)  
 Export: BibTeX | EndNote | Reference Manager | ProCite | RefWorks
Abstract

Baoshui Village, a full-length novel by Qiao Ye, presents to its readers an open, sensitive, holistic, and reflective experiential texture thanks to the writer’s years of preparation spent “going into” and “immersing herself in villages,” as well as her rural narrative focusing on the complexity, contemporaneity, and problem of rural revitalization. The novel employs dual-narrative technique of recounting emotional and village history to advance its plot, paints pictures of village life with polyphonous scenes of village gossip, and engages in participatory observation through the use of the narrator to construct an open subject consciousness that discovers blind spots, surprises, disparities, and paradoxes in the rural experience. By selectively reconstructing the experiences of three archetypal villages and creating the new literary image of a “rural construction expert,” the novel conveys a realistic attitude that values the subjectivity and endogenous power of the countryside. In doing so, this method takes the structure of reality as its core and calls for a pragmatic standpoint that suspends any judgment, so as to “read” the Chinese countryside through the texture of reality.

Keywords Qiao Ye      Baoshui Village      rural narrative      experiential texture      reality structure      presentness     
Issue Date: 25 January 2024
 Cite this article:   
Lu Yang. The Experiential Texture of Contemporary Rural Writing—On the Writing and Reading of Baoshui Village by Qiao Ye[J]. Front. Lit. Stud. China, 2023, 17(4): 409-432.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/flsc/EN/10.3868/s010-012-023-0049-6
https://academic.hep.com.cn/flsc/EN/Y2023/V17/I4/409
[1] Li Yuchun. The Artistic Exploration of “New Novel of Society”—Qiao Ye and Tradition[J]. Front. Lit. Stud. China, 2023, 17(4): 395-408.
[2] Wang Zheng. Between Innovation and Conservatism: A Discursive Review on Qiao Ye's Novel Writing[J]. Front. Lit. Stud. China, 2023, 17(4): 382-394.
[3] Zhang Li. Spatial Aesthetics, Female Perspective, and Storytelling of New Villages—On Qiao Ye's Baoshui Village[J]. Front. Lit. Stud. China, 2023, 17(4): 371-381.
[4] Yan Jingming. How Locality Generates Modernity: Reflections on Qiao Ye's Baoshui Village[J]. Front. Lit. Stud. China, 2023, 17(4): 365-370.
[5] Tan Jie. Revitalization of Rural Areas in the New Era: Seeking for Rural Roots and New Rural Appearance—On Qiao Ye's Baoshui Village[J]. Front. Lit. Stud. China, 2023, 17(4): 358-364.
[6] Zhang Lijun, Hu Yue. Why We Return to Hometown, and How to Return to Hometown[J]. Front. Lit. Stud. China, 2023, 17(4): 353-357.
[7] Liu Qiong. Unveiling the Essence of Rural Writing: On Qiao Ye's Full-Length Novel Baoshui Village[J]. Front. Lit. Stud. China, 2023, 17(4): 349-352.
[8] Qiao Ye. Offering a Gift to Time, Life, and Hometown with a Pure Heart through Literature[J]. Front. Lit. Stud. China, 2023, 17(4): 341-348.
[9] Qiao Ye. Baoshui Village (Excerpt)[J]. Front. Lit. Stud. China, 2023, 17(4): 335-340.
Viewed
Full text


Abstract

Cited

  Shared   
  Discussed