Traditions of Chinese classical literature and Western literature in Mo Yan’s novel “The Republic of Wine”

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of interaction between the genres of Eastern and Western literature, which is an important part of modern literary criticism. In this paper, the interaction of genres is considered on the basis of Mo Yan’s novel “The Republic of Wine” (1992), translated into Russian in 2012 by I. Egorov. The work of the modern Chinese writer is studied in the aspect of “hallucinatory realism”, for its development the author was awarded the Nobel Prize (2012). The article studies the influence of classical Chinese literature genres and philosophy and Western literature on modern Chinese literature, based on the novel “The Republic of Wine” by Mo Yan. The novel of the Chinese writer is analyzed in the context of the world literary process. The article discusses the transformation of motifs and characters of Chinese classical literature in the novel by a modern Chinese author. The main characters of the novel are studied in relation to the plot-forming function they perform, the main of them is the detective one. The plot of the detective story is considered in relation to the satirical tradition. The article presents Mo Yan’s view of the traditions, mentality and lifestyle of the Chinese people. The purpose of the work is to determine the main aspects of the influence of Chinese and Western literature on the work of Mo Yan “The Republic of Wine”. As a result of the study, we describe the plot motifs and images of classical Chinese and Western novels, the ideological principles of Chinese philosophy, which are embodied in Mo Yan’s novel “The Republic of Wine”.