Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.2, 2018

Children’s Literature in Focus “Waterside” Boy and the Conjunction of “Water,” “Fire” and “Soil”: The Multiple Meanings of the “Scenery” in “Cao Wenxuan’s New Novels”

 (Abstract)

Xu Yan and Guan Haichao

Cao Wenxuan’s new novels take the form of “bildungsroman,” which has not only shaped the peculiar “scenery” of the “waterside” boy but also demonstrated some changes in aesthetic style of the core “scenery” of “water.” Cao Wenxuan’s new novels relate the image of “waterside” boy with three different aesthetic “sceneries” of “water,” “fire” and “soil,” and thus explored the new way of Chinese bildungsroman in the new century. These new changes actualized the compatibility of classical, modernist and realistic aesthetic spirits in the sense of literary history, carrying on the mission of the times of Chinese literature in the new century with “remedial” aesthetic thought.