Mythology, history, and reality: Mythorealism in Yan Lianke’s The Explosion Chronicles

Abstract

Abstract“Miraculous” is a word often used to describe the rapid development of urbanization that have taken place in China in the past 30 years. Yan Lianke’s fictional historiography, The Explosion Chronicles, probes into the stories behind the economic miracles with an eye especially for the aspects that are against the common logic of reality. It is an experiment contrived according to his own theory of mythorealism—a literary attempt to grasp reality that is not in existence, out of sight, and concealed by other superficial realities. This article argues that by constantly challenging the authority of truth, Yan Lianke showcases in this novel a new way of grasping reality that is different from the magical realism’s approach. The Explosion Chronicles can be read as a development mythology that is framed by important mythological themes from ancient Chinese mythological discourses, not only blurring the distinctions between the rational and the mythical, but also adopting a whole different logic of progress. By assuming the narrative voice of a novelist commissioned to write a historical account for a fast‐developing metropolis, Yan Lianke undertakes the task of revealing the constant historical truth underlying the changing realities, embodying an understanding of the historical progress similar to Walter Benjamin’s visualization of an angel facing the accumulating wreckages of the past.