The Distinction Between Pastoral and Elegy — the Interpretation of the Causes for the Tragic Ending of Border Town

Abstract

Pastoral or elegy? Comedy or tragedy? The novel that can cause such entanglement and confusion in modern Chinese literature is none other than Border Town. Whether it is the author's "counter-attack" of the original creative style of Xiangxi theme, the frustration of readers' aesthetic expectations, or the "violation" of the popular aesthetic habits, all things have a reason. In the final analysis, there are at least three reasons for this intense and long-lasting discussion and persistent suspicion: the influence of the female view formed by the author’s life experience on the work; the lack and dislocation of the heroine’s view of love in the work; high-level requirements for aesthetics in literary works.