The main manifestations of symbolism in Lu Xun's novels

The main manifestations of the symbolism in Lu Xun's novels

The word "symbol" in Greek originally refers to "a piece of wood divided into two halves, each side holding on to one to ensure the mutual "Hospitality" token was later extended to represent a concept or symbol. "Symbol" in art is a broad concept that belongs to the category of aesthetics. It means that a specific image is used to express and imply meanings and concepts that transcend this image. Symbols contain both metaphorical elements in metaphors and allegorical elements in allegorical expressions, but they are also developed and amplified. American scholar Lawrence Perrine pointed out: "The definition of symbol can be roughly said to be that the meaning of something is greater than itself." "Symbolism means that it is what it says, and at the same time it is more than what it says."

Symbolism insists on using intuition to grasp and express beauty in terms of expression techniques. Use hints and inspirations. It weakens the description of external events and focuses on the bold exposure of the writer's mood, emphasizing the expression of people's subjective feelings about the world, and is keen on revealing people's inner world and subconscious activities. In terms of artistic techniques, exaggerated contrasts are often used, symbolic images are selected, and symbolic hints, image metaphors, free associations and unconventional language are used to express the author's thoughts and complex and subtle emotions and feelings to reveal the surrounding world. The absurdity, indifference, and incomprehensibility, as well as the loneliness, strangeness, anxiety, and pain that people feel in it.

Influenced by Western symbolist writers, Lu Xun absorbed the symbols, hints, metaphors, allusions and other techniques needed to express life here and now, and created a series of masterpieces that shine with the brilliance of symbolism.

Lu Xun wrote more than 30 vernacular novels in a row starting from "Diary of a Madman" to "Riding from Death" in "New Stories". Although most of these novels are short stories, these short stories all show the huge fighting power of destroying the "iron house" and "reforming society". The reason why they have combat effectiveness is not only due to content factors, but also related to the extensive use of symbolic art in the novel that is rich in meaning and chewy, giving the novel a strong artistic appeal. Symbolic art enriches the connotation of Lu Xun's novels by "speech is near but purpose is far away".

"Diary of a Madman" is the work with the most obvious symbolism. It was the first "cry" issued by Lu Xun in the May 4th New Culture Movement. The resentment against traditional feudal thought that had accumulated in Lu Xun's heart for many years needed a general outbreak. The cannibalistic nature of traditional feudal thought accumulated over the years The overall understanding requires a generalized performance. At this time, any clearly specific event is not enough to complete such a creative task. Lu Xun needs a specific image, but this specific image must be an abnormal figure. He cannot have as much stickiness to specific events as normal characters, nor can he have as much potential adaptability to the real living environment and ideological environment as normal characters do (this adaptability is the result of growing up in this environment) It is something that people who have risen up cannot but possess), nor can they follow the conventional thinking logic and make gradual normal reasoning from phenomenon to essence like normal people. Lu Xun's discovery of the realistic character "Madman" actually meant he found an artistic joint that transitioned from reality to symbolism. He used the deformed psychology of the "madman" to directly transform the actual feudal relationship into a symbol, and from this symbol he directly sublimated it to expose the abstract essence of feudal relationships and feudal social ideology. The social and ideological environment here appears as a vague overall picture, and the "madman"'s feeling about it is first of all an emotional feeling. Directly making rational and essential summaries based on emotional feelings is the result of the use of symbolism in "Diary of a Madman". Relying solely on realistic depictions is not enough to achieve such a high degree of artistic generalization in such a short space. . The combination of strong emotions with clear rational generalizations, the combination of realistic possibilities with deformed descriptions of real relationships, are the main signs of the combination of realism and symbolism in "Diary of a Madman".

"Medicine" is also a symbolic novel. It uses two clues, light and dark, and has two stories. On the surface, it is about Hua Laoshuan buying human blood steamed buns to make medicine to treat his son's illness, but secretly there are Illuminati hidden there. The story of Xia Yu's murder, the two are connected with the help of "medicine" with "symbolic" meaning, showing the double tragedy of the Illuminati and the enlightened, and conveying a symbolic theme: what is the spiritual prescription for healing the Chinese nation. The pioneers of the revolution at that time did not advocate negativity, so in his work "Medicine", he "added a wreath" to Xia Yu's grave to show that there were successors to the revolution. After Xia Yu died, there were still many revolutionaries who would inherit his legacy. Career, this is another positive result after Xia Yu's sacrifice. This wreath does reflect historical reality.

"Kong Yiji" also has symbols. There is a detail in which Kong Yiji told the boy very happily and proudly that there are four ways to write the word "Hui". This is actually a symbol that expresses the tragic significance of Kong Yiji as a traditional intellectual. General language has semantics, pronunciation and grammar. The shape of language characters has little impact on the meaning of language. That is, there are four ways to write the word "Hui". Its meaning is still the same, its usage has not changed, and its pronunciation is also the same. China's traditional intellectuals have their own discourse privileges because they have their own language and characters and hold on to their meanings. It proves that they themselves have been gradually marginalized by society and have fallen into a floating state of meaning. When Kong Yiji felt proud that he knew the various ways of writing the word "Hui", the rootlessness and comic destiny that symbolized the meaning of his existence were already clear to the readers. It can be said that the word "Hui" used by Lu Xun has a symbolic meaning with the words "medicine", "turmoil", "blessing", "soap", "hometown", "display" and "divorce" in other novels.

Due to various historical conditions, it was not possible for the broad masses of working people at that time to have a comprehensive and essential understanding of feudal thought and feudal ethics. However, in real life, they might feel it intuitively. Its suffocating power. At this time, their grasp of it is still mainly at the stage of hazy emotional feelings, but the author needs to make full use of this hazy emotional feelings to hint to readers its overall nature. The use of symbolic techniques in "Scream" and "Wandering" often occurs at such artistic joints. Ah Q's association with wolf eyes in "The True Story of Ah Q" and the two old mothers' expectations of the crow flying to the grave at the end of "Medicine" are all endowed with certain symbolic meanings. The symbols in "The Scream" and "Wandering", like the symbols in all symbolist works, have multiple meanings, so they are not ordinary comparisons, but among these multiple meanings, the basic meaning as the first meaning is It has a realistic and specific meaning, and many symbolic meanings are a further sublimation of this realistic meaning. This is the essence of Lu Xun's novels.