Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.4, 2022

On the Realistic Creation of Rural Literature in the New Era

(Abstract)

Zhang Lijun

Rather than continuing the narrative mode of the past, rural literature should keep pace with the times and express new reality, new farmers and the new countryside of rural China. To depict the development of the countryside in the New Era, we can present the evolution of rural narratives in terms of ethical narratives, “new outsider” narratives and narratives of young people returning to their hometowns, outline the overall history of the narrative subjects of contemporary rural literature as well as the aesthetic style of realism, and explore the cultural elements, inner vitality, and possible path of transformation and growth of the spirit of the Chinese countryside that has been alive for thousands of years.