The high praise of authoritative researchers of several generations of reportage and the strong recognition of readers of the times seem to indicate the special existence value of bonded labourers in the history of modern literature in China, but the actual situation is as difficult to distinguish as the entanglement of China reportage style itself. Cross-stylistic attribute should be easier to grasp the advantages of the world, but it is misunderstood as the best footnote of reportage. The complexity of the text and the rapid development of style should be a good foundation for researchers to display their talents, but to a great extent, it has contributed to the superficiality and superficiality of research. Reportage, as a stylistic type, is deeply nourished by western literary resources, but it has stagnated in the introduction of western literary research methods. Although the research methods of western literature have their applicable nationality and specificity, the drawbacks and defects of traditional literary criticism methods are unreservedly exposed in the face of the emerging literary deconstruction methods, taking a look at China's narrative styles such as novels, poems and plays. After stripping off the cloak of ideology, the complexity and fuzziness of literature itself have not been eliminated, but have been strengthened, with more confusing possibilities. In this sense, foreign literature research methods such as narratology, stylistics and reception aesthetics can and should be introduced into China's reportage research. This is of great significance to confirm the stylistic features of reportage and to explore the reportage value of related texts.
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"After investigation, I think this novel is not enough to reflect the situation of bonded labourers. It is enough to tell the truth about their lives. Therefore, I tried my best to be true to the materials I could investigate at that time, and wrote "Bonded Labor" without fiction and exaggeration, which is a reportage. After the passage of time, it is interesting to recall the whole writing process of Xia Yan's "Bonded Workers". On the one hand, it highlights the stylistic differences between reportage and fiction-truth and fiction; on the other hand, it clarifies some essential steps such as field investigation in the process of reportage writing. Moreover, it is obvious that the purpose of "investigation" in the pre-text stage is to achieve "striving for truth" in the process of text writing.
Drawing lessons from the narratology theories of Lubbock, todorov and Genette, Chen Pingyuan divided the narrative perspective into three levels: omniscient narrative, restricted narrative and purely objective narrative, which provided an important theoretical basis for studying the narrative transformation of his China novels from tradition to modernity. The "making up history" from the omniscient perspective and the "truth" from the limited perspective highlight the differences in narrative functions brought about by different perspectives. In fact, a similar shift in perspective is also reflected in the reportage classic "Bonded Workers".
The choice of the third-person narrator is our first impression of the narrative perspective when we read Contract Worker, and behind the peaceful narrative, there are more fragments with a strong sense of picture. In the process of showing the working environment, identity, words and deeds of bonded labourers, the narrator is not a subjective thinker and actor, but an objective observer and recorder. "No hair, barefoot, buttoned, a few sleepy' slackers' rushed down from upstairs. The faucet is crowded with people, holding some water in their hands and pouring it on their faces. " "This is the workshop of Ludong Cotton Mill, Yang. A tightly closed workshop area made of rectangular and red bricks. " Similar sketch narrative discourse can be seen everywhere in the writing process. In this narrative process, the author adopts a limited narrative way, only describes what he can achieve without adding it out of thin air, and does not make subjective emotional evaluation of the environment and people he sees objectively. This objective narrative method is obviously easier to confirm the non-fiction characteristics of reportage, although it is also more difficult to deal with. In this sense, we can undoubtedly feel more clearly Xia Yan's consciousness and efforts to stick to the stylistic attributes of reportage.
In order to highlight the non-fiction of reportage text writing more clearly, the author also pays attention to the originality of narration in the process of shaping many characters appearing in the text. Xia Yan adopted a style different from the May 4th writers' emphasis on psychoanalysis, separating the inner psychology of the characters from the external body, leaving aside the analysis of any characters' inner psychology, and just calmly recording the characters' words and deeds, so that readers can experience the taste for themselves. "Beat you! Don't get up Lazy! Wait for the sun to go up the mountain? " "Dead lazy! You can't lie down and die, you deserve it! " "Fake disease! I'll find you a doctor! " The text is full of similar short words. Although it is only a few words, it presents the ugly face of the contractor boss to the readers in a very calm and objective way. The subtext behind them is self-evident. The simplicity of narrative can give people a real feeling of being there, and what is presented to readers is an objective and true picture of the miserable life of contract workers. Any truth in text narration needs to be expressed through language, and the acquisition of readers' sense of existence is the best way to rely on non-fiction stylistic features.
For reportage, which is a special style, pre-interview and investigation are particularly important, which is a powerful guarantee to realize its non-fiction style characteristics and the best presentation of reportage writers' attitude. The hardships of contract workers' life, "it is not enough to collect materials alone, but also to conduct field trips." According to the survey, each person has to inhale 0.15g tidbits on average, the scene of working at high temperature in midsummer 156, the fact that there are 24 contract workers among the 32 female workers in the sliver workshop of a factory in Yangshupu, and so on. It has been nearly ten years since I came into contact with the theme of 1927 bonded labourers and the publication of 1936 bonded labourers. In-depth and comprehensive investigation is the best embodiment of Xia Yan's reportage writing attitude, and it also strongly confirms the non-fiction style of reportage.
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In the existing reportage research results, literariness is often narrowly defined as "exquisite structure, vivid description, beautiful writing, smooth expression and possibly infectious". These superficial generalizations can of course be regarded as "pragmatic" in reportage, but they do not really touch the deep structure of reportage "literariness". In fact, the display of literary elements in reportage can be more understood as a reader's awareness of the writer, regardless of whether the disclosure and dissemination of this awareness is conscious to the writer himself. In other words, literariness is more reflected in a reader's reading experience.
China literature with a long history brings us not only abundant resources, but also helplessness. Indeed, as far as every individual reader is concerned, due to the differences and incompleteness of personal life experiences, there will inevitably be his own reading blind spot, which is, in layman's terms, the point of uninteresting. On the one hand, this assertion confirms the old adage that "there is specialization in the art", on the other hand, it also brings higher requirements to the author's creation: on the one hand, it should pay enough attention to its blind spots, on the other hand, it should also consider the reader's reading pleasure. After all, the existence of reading blind spots has brought other benefits. It is logical to focus on a certain style or a certain reading field, so it is natural to complete the relative familiarity with the area. When such familiarity appears in the reader's field of vision in black and white, the reference of information will certainly help us finish reading, but it also loses the pleasure of "discovery" in reading. It should be noted that readers are not concerned with the familiar inertial information that is helpful to reading, but with the strange things that tempt us to keep reading. Such discrimination undoubtedly deepens the complexity of narrative strategies of reportage writers in the process of creation, and is of course the necessity of clarifying readers' consciousness.
As far as the text of "bonded labourers" is concerned, its creation closely revolves around the living conditions of the workers in the bottom oriental cotton mills. "Their official name is' bonded labor'. For ordinary recipients who were not familiar with riffraff at that time, "bonded labor" became the temptation of the novel, but it also constituted an obvious reading obstacle. Xia Yan chose a clever way to solve this paradox. The whole work takes the life of a bonded worker as the structural clue, from four o'clock in the morning to the evening. In this special group, there are some special terms such as "foreman", "pig", "foot road", "doffing" and "workshop", which are undoubtedly the key to refine the unequal contractual relationship between the contractor and the foreman. " This kind of workshop doesn't have the front door of an ordinary alley house. Their front door is like the back door of an ordinary house. There is a three-inch long wooden sign nailed to each front door frame. ""contract workers are brought into the factory with workers, so their collective nouns have changed again. In the factory, they are called' experimental workers' and' training workers'. During the experimental work, it means that they are going to train a' novice' into a' proficient'. While giving the temptation of strangeness, the author always pays attention to the reading dilemma that readers may encounter, so he explains the text. It is in this layer of dismantling that the author launched a miserable scene in which bonded labourers were miserable and bullied. Ruthless foreman, scrawny and slovenly "Chai Lu's stick", and the distinct fate difference between the characters strengthen the readers' emotional experience in the reading process.
For ordinary readers, in addition to the above-mentioned strangeness temptation, reading pleasure can also be achieved by intervening in reading. "When the tram to Yangshupu passes Qiqihar Road, you can hear a rustle of rain and thunder. As soon as you enter the factory, the violent noise is eliminated-no, your hearing is paralyzed. " Here, Xia Yan joined the reader in the construction of the text in the form of the second person, and introduced the inhuman situation of the cotton mill workers to you as a reader. Under the triple threat of "sound, dust and humidity", the contractor is inevitably tired frequently. At this time, the author imagines the reader as a "contractor" who suffers from suffering and oppression. "Because the iron tyrant like a beast is watching you, as long as the line is broken, the shell is broken, the roller is in the wrong direction, and even there is any accumulation on the car board, there will be' Namovin' (foreman). When describing Mo Wen's unkindness and ingenious methods to migrant workers, the author still chooses to let readers walk into the text, "for example, give you a hard' life' or let you do something you don't want to do. "It is this series of positive and effective interventions that make us fully feel the uniqueness of the author's narrative in the process of reading.
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In China's current reportage creation and research, apart from the "non-fiction" and "literariness" mentioned above, another component that cannot be ignored is the "social criticism" of reportage. "This is the soul of reportage creation and the literary spirit that must be adhered to." As an effective way for intellectuals to get involved in society, the stylistic function of reportage refers to direct concern for the historical process and people's living conditions. The extensive adoption and strong criticism of social themes reflect the strong sense of mission and responsibility of China reportage in real social life. In the previous discourse system of social and historical criticism, the stylistic features of reportage are often summarized unilaterally, which is deeply influenced by traditional documentary literature, but it also reflects the inappropriateness of traditional criticism in the current social and historical context. Although "modern reportage, a new style, has obvious and unique political and ideological connotation since its birth", it is obvious that replacing the original critical terms with "social criticism" can better reflect the powerful social function of reportage, and its existence is a powerful footnote for what Ji Xi called "a dangerous literary style". "We must serve human existence and consciousness" [2].
In the west, the emergence of reportage is regarded as the product of modern industrial society, and the prosperity of modern media such as newspapers and magazines has promoted its germination and rapid development. China's reportage can be traced back to the creation of Liang Qichao and others in the late Qing Dynasty, but modern intellectuals' understanding of the stylistic function of reportage benefits from the translation of relevant western research papers. In this historical process, Xia Yan has played an indelible and important role. 1October 20th 1932, 65438+ Hiroshi Kawaguchi's reportage was published in the first issue of the second volume of Beidou magazine, which is the earliest monograph on reportage research in China. Although Xia Yan only translated articles written by Japanese scholars under the pseudonym Shen Duan first, he showed his concern and admiration for reportage from another aspect. Obviously, Hiroshi Kawaguchi's related expositions also profoundly influenced Xia Yan's understanding of reportage, a special literary genre. Reportage is an important monograph on reportage, which not only introduces Hiroshi Kawaguchi's theoretical views on reportage without reservation, but also puts forward Xia Yan's own views according to time and place. One of the most important points is that reportage should be "strongly social critical". As early as this time, the emphasis on the subjective critical spirit of the writing subject has entered Xia Yan's reportage theory field of vision.
Indeed, reportage, as a narrative style, is characterized by the fact that the narrator and the author are often the same person. The transformation of narrative perspective in the writing of Contract Worker shows us different functions of different narrative focus modes. While confirming that reportage is not fiction, it is also easy to cause some questions-is the author really so indifferent to what he has seen and heard? Don't! Xia Yan's attitude is fierce. In order to convey his subjective judgment, the author often enters the narrative process of the text, interferes with the narrative and resolutely criticizes that unbearable era. "This kind of Spring Festival couplets posted in this place seems to be proud of others, and it seems to be a satire on yourself." After objectively describing the pigeon-cage-like factory buildings that Japanese manufacturers rented to "workers", the author stood up and criticized them irresistibly, but the expression here is a bit euphemistic. When Chai Lubang got sick with an acute bad cold, the handyman quickly came to curse. "I grabbed my hair in one hand and threw my life to the ground in the other. Chai Lubang fell on my hands and feet, much like a squid with a sucker attached to its limbs." The seemingly indifferent description reminds the author of effective intervention with vivid metaphors. "However, from the perspective of our children, the boatmen didn't mistreat the ink duck. Now, if this relationship is transferred to people, even this warmth will no longer exist! " At this point, Xia Yan has been unable to restrain his infinite grief and indignation. "No light, no heat, no warmth, no hope ... no law, no humanity." The technological maturity of industry in the era brought not economic prosperity but slavery-like suffering to the people at the bottom of society. This shocking situation was clearly criticized in the author's final conclusion, "I also want to warn some people, beware of the ghosts moaning on the spindle", because, in his view, "the arrival of dawn is still irresistible." The dark life will eventually disappear in the continuous progress of history. While criticizing the inhuman human demon "foreman", Xia Yan also pointed the finger at imperialism and reactionary dark forces. This series of non-narrative discourses is undoubtedly of indisputable importance to the construction of the text itself.
More than 70 years have passed quickly, and the tragic life situation in Xia Yan's "Bonded Labourers" has long been replaced by a new life that is earth-shaking. However, it is precisely because of his social critical non-fiction creation that this text has lasting charm. "Chai Lubang" is a typical example of China modern reportage figure gallery. A strong cry from the bottom lingers in readers' ears for a long time. Xia Yan, who translated, advocated and studied reportage, achieved his unique landscape in the history of reportage development in China with a practical classic called Contract Worker.