Mythification of the Reform-Era History

Abstract

The notion of “avant-garde literature” (xianfeng wenxue) in China refers specifically to a literary movement in the second half of the 1980s. Beginning around 1985, the movement reached its peak in 1987 or 1988 and gradually declined after 1989. Avant-garde literature usually expressed aspirations to overturn existing conceptions and traditions of literature. It is generally recognized that the representative avant-garde writers include Ma Yuan, Yu Hua, Su Tong, Ge Fei, Hong Feng, Ye Zhaoyan, Bei Cun, Sun Ganlu, Lu Xin, Pan Jun, and others. However, when we refer to “avant-garde novelists” we often neglect the deep internal differences within the group. As I see it, avant-garde novelists can be divided roughly into at least two groups. The first, comprising writers such as Ma Yuan, Ge Fei, Sun Ganlu, and Bei Cun, emphasizes narrative changes and formalist strategies. This group represents a radical orientation toward exploration of form and literary experimentation, a pursuit that sometimes carries distinct shades of mischievousness. These writers often become objects of analysis by the so-called postmodern hermeneutic theory, which depicts their works in terms of postmodern characteristics such as metanarration, collage, hybridity, and lack of depth. The other type of avant-garde author is relatively weak in formal innovation and does not purposely seek in narration to break with existing literary precedent and customs.