Mo Yan's Novels Are Wearing Me out: Nominating Statement for the 2009 Newman Prize

Abstract

28 i World Literature Today z z o U z o I 3 ^^^^K z Mo Yan's Novels Are Wearing Me Out Nominating Statement forthe2009Newman Prize Howard Goldblatt t the riskof offending readers and critics,Iwant tobegin by stating thatno one reads a literary text more closely than a translator, who must deal with every singleword and how that word JL JL relates tootherwords. Ihave translatednovels and storiesby dozens ofwriters from China and Taiwan, and while some of those writers would make fine Newman Prize candidates, Mo Yan stands out as the most accomplished and creative novelist ofhis era. Iventure to say thatno literateurban Chinese and few foreignerswho read about China will be unfamiliarwith his name. They will likelyhave read Red Sorghum (1985) or seen themovie. Widely referredto as post-Mao China's "breakthrough novel," it is often linkedwith Gabriel Garcia M?rquez's One Hundred Years ofSolitudeas a creativemilestone. Since then Mo Yan has published prolifically. But numbers tellonly part of the story.The quality and diversity ofhis fictionaloutput, by any literaryand popular measure, is extraordinary. In 1988Mo Yan followed Red Sorghum with a passionate metafiction thatexposed a heart ofdarkness represented by corrupt,venal local officials inThe Garlic Ballads. Itwas removed frombookshelves dur ing the 1989 Tiananmen confrontation forfear that it might furtherincite thedemonstrators. Then came themost uproarious and biting satire in thehistory ofmodern Chinese literature,The Republic of Wine. In trueRabelaisian fashion, Mo Yan launched an attack against and parodied aspects ofChinese society (most notably, gourmandism, here including cannibalism, and an obsession with alcohol as a cultural commodity). Among Mo Yan's more recent novels are Death by Sandalwood, a love story amid savage cruelty dur ing theBoxer Rebellion, and ThirteenPaces, his venture intohighmodernism. The author's success with satire inThe Republic of Wine was followed by Forty-oneBombs, a novel inwhich meat replaces liquor as thevehicle foran examination of contemporary society; itis filled with puns, allusions, and varying prose styles, common features of much ofMo Yan's fiction. These early novels differ from one another in style, content, and effects. Recently, he has undertaken the ambitious project of chronicling twentieth-century Chinese history in twoblockbuster novels. Cited as "Mo Yan's grab forthebrass ring,i.e., the Nobel Prize inLiterature" (WashingtonPost), Big Breasts andWide Hips focuses on a familyofwomen in a generally unflattering romp through the first half of the twentiethcentury,and a bit beyond. His latestnovel, Life andDeath Are WearingMe Out, narrates the second half of the century, with all its tragicabsurdities (and absurd tragedies). Characterized as "a wildly visionary and creative novel" (NewYork Times), itputs a human (and frequentlybestial) face on the revolution, and is repletewith thedark humor,metafictional asides, and fantasies that Mo Yan's readers have come to expect and enjoy. Most good novelists have difficulty maintaining a consistentlyhigh standard in their writing, but not Mo Yan. Each of his novels has been universally praised, and each demonstrates thedepth and breadth of his exceptional talent. He is a master of diverse styles and forms, from fable to magic realism, hard-core realism, (post)modernism, andmore. His imagery is striking, his talesoftenbewitching, and his characters richlyappealing. He is,quite simply, one of a kind. Universityof Notre Dame Howard Goldblatt is Research Professor at the University of Notre Dame and an internationally renowned translator of modern Chinese literature. The recipient of two translation fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, he has translated more than forty novels and story collections from China and Taiwan into English. In2009 he was awarded a GuggenheimFellowship to translate Mo Yan's Death by Sandalwood. July-August 2009 i29 ...