Study on the “Defamiliarization” Narrative in Mo Yan’s Novel the Republic of Wine

Abstract

Mo Yan understands the narration of defamiliarization profoundly. With his extraordinary creative personality, compassionate human feelings, and unique aesthetic judgment, he makes pioneering exploration and innovation in his novel The Republic of Wine. The defamiliarization of the novel’s language is firstly reflected in the change of the name, and the renewal of the semantic connotation gives the work a “new” and “defamiliarized” characteristic. As the core imagery and aesthetic element, the meaning of “wine” extends to the connotation and reflection of nationality. At the same time, the novel’s ironic rhetoric gives the plain words a strong critical meaning. Furthermore, the novel adopts a variable narrative point of view and a changing narrative subject, so that the story presents a rich plurality in pursuing the value of the subject and exploring artistic methods, overflowing with the brilliance of interweaving the real and the fantastic, overlapping the realistic and the absurd, reflecting the torture of human nature and the search for the soul in a defamiliarized expression with modern temperament and contemporary spirit.