Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.2, 2021

The Double-Layer Narrative Structure of Online Rebirth Novels

(Abstract)

Xiao Xiang

Many works of online rebirth novels reflect the double-layer narrative structure of the surface and the deep. The surface structure is a comparison of two lives. The leading character uses the memory advantage of one life to start a new life; the deep structure is embodied in the binary opposition as the unknown and the known. The unknown and uncertain factors in the second life still exist. Through the setting of a two-layer structure, the rebirth novel reflects the entertainment and compensation functions of literature, expresses the imperfections of life and the limits of self-cognition, as well as the aesthetic thinking of the value and meaning of life.