Sinotheory

Lianke Yan, Carlos Rojas

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781478022916
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Over the past twenty years, Chinese novelist Yan Lianke has emerged as one of the most important writers in the world. In Discovering Fiction, Yan offers insights into his views on literature and realism, the major works that inspired him, and his theories of writing. He juxtaposes discussions of the high realism of Leo Tolstoy and Lu Xun against Franz Kafka's modernism and Gabriel García Márquez's magical realism, charting the relationship between causality, truth, and modes of realism. He also discusses his approach to realism, which he terms "mythorealism"—a way of capturing the world's underlying truth by relying on the allegories, myths, legends, and dreamscapes that emerge from daily life. Revealing and instructive, Discovering Fiction gives readers an unprecedented look into the mind and art of a literary giant.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Translator’s Introduction. Creating Reality and Surpassing Realism: Carlos Rojas
• 1. Realism’s Four Levels of Truth
• 2. Zero Causality
• 3. Full Causality
• 4. Partial Causality
• 5. Inner Causality
• 6. Mythorealism
• Appendix: Chinese Authors and Works
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index