Abstract

Info

Keywords:: new novels in 1985; revolution in novel writing; Chinese literature in the era of reform and opening up

Abstract:: New Novels in 1985 is an annual novel anthology co-edited by Wu Liang and Cheng Depei. The discussion of the new novel in this paper is not limited to this anthology. What was new about the new novel? By whom was it defined, interpreted, and confirmed? In what literary field was it defined, interpreted, and confirmed? How influential was the new novel in 1985? Putting these questions into perspective, the paper is intended to reconstruct the new novel and the literary scene in 1985. The new novel was not just the result of a formal revolution in the literary laboratory, but a shaping and constructing process in which various forces worked together, involving the writers' conscious literary practice, the critics' interpretation, the publication of literary journals, the screening of the anthology of the selected works, the readers' reception, and the nomination and selection of literary awards. The new novel has not only provided a new sample of fiction for contemporary Chinese literature, but also confirmed and identified the writers and literary circles it imagines. Although the literary-historical significance of the new novel embodied in the statement “Time has begun” is only “a synchronic section exposed at the fracture of history” and is a natural result of the development of the revolution in novel writing in the new age up to 1985, it is also the opening of a new chapter to the future.