Is the novel a narrative?

Narrative mainly refers to articles about remembering people, narrating, writing scenes and writing things. Specifically, it is an article that describes the modality and development process of people, events, scenes and things in social life by narrative, description and lyric, so as to express the author's thoughts and express some feelings.

As general articles, narratives and expositions are the reflection of objective things, or the products of objective things processed by the author's mind. But as different styles of articles, there are great differences between them.

First, the objects reflected are different. Although both styles reflect objective things, they have different emphases. Generally speaking, narrative focuses on expressing the modality itself of people, events, scenes and things in the objective world; On the other hand, the article focuses on expressing the author's views and opinions on the essential laws of various complex relationships among people, things, scenery and things in the objective world. These two different emphases limit the subject range of these two styles.

Second, the way of thinking is different. This is determined by the different objects reflected by the two styles. To reveal the objective law and express the author's understanding, it is necessary to use logical thinking to achieve the goal through concept, judgment and reasoning; Narrative mainly reflects the objective things themselves and expresses the author's experience and feelings, which can only be reflected by means of thinking in images, narration, description and lyricism. These two different ways of thinking that reflect life can be said to be the basic characteristics that distinguish argumentative writing from narrative writing.

Third, the function of expression is different. Logical thinking and image thinking have different appeal to human senses. The former is "convincing people with reason" and the latter is "moving people with emotion". If argumentative writing evokes people's reason through rigorous reasoning, then narrative evokes people's emotions through vivid and concrete images.

Fourth, the elements are different. A reasoning article needs to write out what the reason is, what the proof is, and how to prove it. Narrative, whether about people or narrative, should write out the people and things that happened, the time and place of occurrence, the reason and the result. Without a clear explanation, the narrative will be incomplete and the content will not be understood. This is the "six elements" of narrative.

Fifth, the use of language is different. Different styles have many similarities in the use of language, such as accuracy and conciseness; However, due to different expressions, there will be some different key requirements. For example, argumentative writing needs more rigor and sharpness, and narrative writing needs more vividness and image. If the use of language is not in harmony with the stylistic requirements, it is inappropriate. "Appropriateness" is the most basic and practical standard for different styles in language use.

It must be clear that the different characteristics of the two styles listed above are important signs to distinguish the stylistic boundaries from different sides and cannot be confused. The purpose of the difference is to better grasp the stylistic knowledge, in this case, to better grasp the characteristics of narrative, so as to apply it to the writing practice of narrative. However, we should also see that the above differences are not absolute, and they can often penetrate each other and complement each other in the specific writing process. For example, the emotion and reason of objective things are sometimes mixed together. Argumentative writing does not exclude the role of emotion, and image description often implies the expressive force of argumentative writing. For another example, in the process of writing, the conception of narrative often uses logical thinking to understand life, while the expression of expository sometimes uses image thinking to analyze things. Understanding the differences and connections between different styles can improve the author's conception and expression ability. This is very necessary for any writing style.

Narrative style is a complicated problem.

The "style" we are talking about here refers to the different styles of the article, which is the external formal feature of the article. Narrative styles are varied, such as news, communication, reportage, biography, travel notes, diaries, letters and so on. The narration mentioned here can usually be divided into three types: remembering people, describing scenery and lyrical narration. The narration of remembering people can be divided into simple narration and complex narration. In order to facilitate understanding and learning, more complex narratives are separated here and called "more complex narratives". As a literary genre, lyric narrative is closely related to prose, so it is difficult and unnecessary to distinguish it strictly.

Below, we will make some necessary explanations on the common sense and writing requirements of narrative classification.

Remember people's narrative.

This is the main body of general narration. Remembering people and narrating are inseparable. To remember people, it is necessary to write about people's activities, which are all manifested as events; Narration is the process of writing events, and the process of any event is the embodiment of the activities of characters. So it is difficult to distinguish between remembering people and narratives, and sometimes they can even be regarded as the same type. Nevertheless, remembering people and narration are two kinds of narratives with different tendencies, and it is necessary to distinguish them. The main difference between them lies in the different starting point and emphasis of writing. The narrative of "Remember People" focuses on writing people. Narration is to express the ideological outlook, spiritual quality and personality characteristics of the characters through their behaviors and activities, without exaggerating the events themselves.

Write landscape narrative and lyric narrative.

It is easy to distinguish between narratives that mainly describe scenery and narratives that mainly describe objects. The difficulty lies in the difference between narrative writing about scenery and lyrical narrative writing. This is because scenery and images can't be written without lyric, and lyric often needs the help of scenery and images. This is the so-called "borrowing scenery to express emotion" or "expressing ambition with things" Therefore, in a specific article, scenery, images and lyricism are often combined. These two kinds of articles are dual in style: as general articles, they are regarded as narrative articles; As a literary work, it can be called prose. The distinction between these two types of articles depends on their main tendencies. Generally speaking, if the description of a scene or an object is the main content and lyricism is only interspersed and elaborated on this basis, it should be regarded as the narrative of a scene or an object. Such as Yu Dafu's Autumn in the Old Capital. If an article focuses on expressing some feelings, and the scenery is only a metaphor or symbol that the author relies on, it should be classified as lyric narration. Such as Mao Dun's praise of poplars.

A complicated narrative.

In the narrative of remembering people and narrating, some are relatively simple, while others are more complicated. Here, the latter is mentioned as a style alone to understand, because this kind of article is the most common and the focus of our writing practice. This complex narrative is different from the general narrative characteristics and basic requirements, mainly in the following aspects.

A combination of many materials. More complex narrative is often more than one event, but a close combination of several events around the center. Lu Xun wrote Memories of Five Young Writers to commemorate forgetting. In this paper, the author narrates many events such as communication, farewell and missing with Bai Mang and Rou Shi, so as to highlight the theme of getting rid of sadness and better commemorate the deceased. Variations on Hamburg Harbor wrote about the outstanding performance of China sailors in Hamburg Harbor, which won the praise of the Germans. This theme is expressed by telling a series of events that China seafarers deal with Germans, such as receiving goods, loading and binding.

Unity of various combinations. Many materials should be combined together, often not in a single narrative order, and often not just in a narrative way, but in a diversified unity. This is the basic content of the book "Thinking and Writing", which we will discuss in detail later. For example, Lu Xun's "In Memory of Liu Hezhen" adopts a comprehensive way of combining time sequence with logical sequence and unifying it in the form of subsection labeling. Zhu Ziqing's Venice introduces Venice's natural scenery and cultural relics, and adopts the ingenious combination of spatial order and thing order to refine and express the narrative content completely.

Comprehensive use of various expressions. This is more prominent in complex narratives. For example, the full text of contract workers can be divided into two categories: one is narrative, which describes and describes the labor life of contract workers in one day; The second is to discuss and explain the origin, formation and essence of debt bondage system. These two completely different expressions are skillfully combined in an article, forming a unique combination. Mao Dun's Talk about Mountains and Waters is another example of comprehensive application of various expressive techniques. Six vivid pictures, embedded in five lyrical discussions, skillfully combine narrative, description, lyricism and discussion, and show the theme of the work layer by layer.

Please compare and read the following two examples.

Zhang Henshui's life is interesting.

Zhoujiawang

Not long ago, the portrait of Mr. Zhang Henshui, a late novel master, who is famous for "Crying for Marriage" and "Golden Powder Family", was in his hometown of Buried Hill, Anhui Province, smiling silently at readers and scholars from all over the country to commemorate his centenary birthday. A few days ago, the author visited Mr. Zhang Wu, the fourth son of Mr. Zhang Henshui, and listened to him fondly recalling this old man who still lives in the hearts of millions of readers.

Zhang Henshui was diligent in writing all his life, and his pen was strong. During his nearly 50 years of pen farming, he even wrote more than 40 million words, ranking first in the history of China literature. People have always praised writers for "writing books equally", but Mr. Zhang Henshui's works are simply "writing books equally" compared with his not short figure.

Zhang Henshui's articles are colorful, but people are unsmiling and unsociable. 1930, Zhang Henshui published "Marriage in distress situation" in Shanghai, which caused a sensation in Shanghai and people rushed to buy it. For a time, "Luoyang paper is expensive." Zhang Henshui's fame is hardly known to readers everywhere. During their stay in Chongqing, Mr. Zhang Henshui and Mr. Zhang Wu once went to the bank to withdraw money, which was discovered by a group of enthusiastic readers and swarmed around Mr. Zhang. Zhang Henshui was so nervous that he quickly "escaped" with his son. He whispered to his son in the street, "It is the most embarrassing thing to treat people's faces as novels."

Speaking of this, Zhang Henshui sometimes "shows his face". 1933, a flood occurred in Hubei province. In order to raise money for the victims, Zhang Henshui dressed in black took part in a charity performance, playing Zhang Wenyuan, Yan Xijiao's lover, in the Beijing opera Wulongyuan. Zhang Wenyuan ticked a little face, but this time he hung a number one card on the playlist. Zhang Henshui won the conference prize as soon as he came to power. Yanxijiao suddenly asked Song Jiang on the stage, "I heard that you have a student named Zhang Xinyuan (the character in the play is Zhang Wenyuan, only one word short of Zhang Henshui's original name). This novel is really well written. Why can't you write a word? " The audience burst into laughter when she said this. Sung river quickly said, "what's the matter? You've only heard of the champion apprentice. When have you ever heard of the champion master? " The audience is very happy.

Zhang Henshui not only sings well, but also plays "Good Hu Xian". Every time I pull it up, my wife doesn't itch and sings. Mr. Zhang proudly said, "I am a blowjob to attract phoenix." Mrs. Zhang sneered: "You Hu Xian are' talking is better than nothing'." Although this is a joke, it is not catching shadows. Because in the interview, Mr. Zhang Wu told me that the old gentleman's piano skills were really flattering.

Mr. Zhang Henshui has many hobbies all his life. He knows everything about piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and he is also good at growing flowers and grass. Painting on New Year's Day and writing poems on New Year's Eve are the same for many years. Besides, he never plays cards or drinks in his life, but it may be necessary to smoke a cigarette when writing. In his later years, he summed up that he was not good at "Hu Xian, calligraphy and English" and was not good at "playing games, drinking and guessing", so he was very modest.

Mr. Zhang Henshui loved books all his life. At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, the old man was still alive. He was at a loss for fear that his book would be copied. I want to hide in a big water tank, but I am afraid that it will be moldy after a long time; Hiding under the bed, afraid that people will turn it out as soon as they turn it over; Where should I hide? Finally, the old man moved the book back to the bookcase, then put two big white papers on the glass door of the bookcase, blocked the book inside, and then sighed contentedly, feeling foolproof. Such "no books here" obviously cannot escape "the discerning eyes of the people". Fortunately, Mrs. Zhang is kind at ordinary times. She will not be a sinner or help her neighbors. This is only after the aunt of the Revolutionary Committee came forward to protect the Zhang family from persecution. On the morning of the seventh day of the first month of the second year of the "Cultural Revolution", Mr. Zhang Henshui sat on a stool and bent down to lift his shoes, then quietly left, at the age of 72.

Mr. Zhang Henshui often teaches his children to "sweat and eat their own food" so that they can eat it all their lives. The fourth son, Mr. Zhang Wu, is a screenwriter of China Peking Opera Theatre. He has a family history and is very fatherly. After more than 20 years of painstaking collection and arrangement, the novels and essays of The Complete Works of Zhang Henshui were finally published last year, with about170,000 words and as many as 70 volumes. Mr. Zhang Wu also told me that recently, his biography of Zhang Henshui has been compiled and will be published soon.

In addition, Anhui people built the "Zhang Henshui Memorial Hall" in Mr. Zhang Henshui's hometown; CCTV will also produce and broadcast a TV series adapted from Mr. Zhang Henshui's masterpiece "Golden Powder Family". This series of activities is to commemorate Mr. Zhang Henshui, a master of popular novels, who left us for 28 years and celebrate his birthday100th anniversary.

(From Guangming Daily199565438+1October 28th)

Zhang Henshui's life is a complicated narrative. Based on the author's interview with Zhang Henshui's son, this paper narrates the anecdote of this popular novelist's life. With vivid examples of the writer's diligence in writing, unsmiling, wide hobbies and love of books, this paper shows the life purport and personality characteristics of this prolific writer from different aspects, which is versatile, humorous, persistent and pedantic. How are these many materials combined around the center? After reading the article carefully, apart from the literary achievements of ordinary writers at the beginning and end, we can see that the author narrates events in chronological order, that is, the order of the writer's life course. At the same time, at every different stage of life, the author highlights some interesting things. From the full text, it also constitutes a structure arranged in order according to the nature of things. Therefore, the full text adopts a combination of time sequence and interest. In terms of means of expression, this article is as colorful as Zhang Henshui's life interest, and has achieved diversified unity. The writer's achievements use narrative skills; The writer's humor is often expressed by quoting the original words or through dialogue; Writers have many hobbies and often use the language of general review; Writers love books as much as their lives, but they use various descriptive means such as actions, expressions and psychological activities. Different contents are expressed in different ways, which is the biggest feature of complex narrative.

Beethoven tore up the music angrily.

Beethoven was born in a poor family in Germany from 65438 to 0770. His musical talent was discovered by his parents at the age of four. So his father taught him to play the piano himself.

Young Beethoven was forced to practice difficult music by his rude father every day, and he would be beaten if he made a mistake. Later, many people thought that Beethoven's hearing problems when he grew up were caused by being slapped by his father when he was young.

When he was a little older, Beethoven studied the organ, harpsichord, violin and other musical instruments with other tutors. Later, he studied composition with the famous composer Haydn. Beethoven's amazing musical talent in his youth was appreciated by Mozart.

Beethoven himself worships Mozart very much. Because his family was poor, he worked hard and saved a sum of money. 16 years old, he left his hometown and went to Vienna, the city of music, to visit Mozart, then a master of 3/kloc-0 years old, and improvise in front of him. Then Beethoven chose a passage from Mozart's new play to play. Mozart could not help exclaiming from the bottom of his heart and announcing to his friends, "Ladies and gentlemen, please pay attention to this young friend. One day, his name will spread all over the world. "

Beethoven gave his first performance in Vienna at the age of 25 and became famous immediately. Since then, his talent for composing music has been appreciated by the upper class. Unfortunately, at this time, his hearing began to have problems and gradually declined. Whenever the band rehearses, he has to be around, otherwise the high-pitched parts of the instruments and songs will be completely inaudible. But as a musician, Beethoven can't tell others about this difficulty. No wonder he said, "maybe I am the most unfortunate of all things created by god;" However, if this is my destiny, I have to continue to endure it. "Later, his illness became more and more serious, so that his ears were completely deaf, but he still lived tenaciously and continued to engage in music creation.

Beethoven is 56 years old. He left us many classic works handed down from generation to generation, the most famous of which is the third of his nine symphonies-Hero in E-flat Major.

Beethoven was very concerned about the French Revolution, and he deeply agreed with the ideas advocated by the Revolution-freedom, equality and fraternity. Then Napoleon came to power and became the new leader of France. Beethoven respected Napoleon's outstanding achievements and decided to write a symphony for him, namely the third symphony "Hero".

1804, Beethoven completed this great and magnificent work, and immediately sent it to the French embassy as a gift to Napoleon, and wrote "Dedicated to Napoleon" on the cover of the music score.

But in May, something unexpected happened to Beethoven, and his ideal national hero Napoleon actually proclaimed himself emperor. This incident is undoubtedly a heavy blow to Beethoven, who is in high spirits.

From then on, he thought Napoleon was just a vulgar man, not a hero of the people, but an ambitious man riding on the people's heads! The angry Beethoven tore the page engraved with "Dedicated to Napoleon" from the music score. Later, after his emotions calmed down, he wrote "Hero Symphony-Memories of a Great Man" on the music score. 1805, under the personal command of Beethoven, this piece premiered in Vienna.

The "Hero" symphony is divided into four movements, lasting more than 50 minutes, which is more than twice as long as the general symphony at that time. The whole song is full of majesty and tenderness, and it is the first music with rich spiritual connotation among Beethoven's many works. He himself thinks this piece is better than his later famous symphony Destiny.

According to Wagner, a famous opera composer, the symphony Hero is not a hero in ordinary drama, but a real hero of all mankind who is strong, just and has unique love, sympathy and strength. In fact, Beethoven combined the tenderest emotion with the strongest power in his music.

18 12 years, Napoleon finally suffered a fiasco at Waterloo, became a prisoner and died in exile 182 1. Beethoven said: "I wrote a funeral March for him as early as 17 years ago!" "He was referring to the second movement in the symphony Hero.

(Selected from Hong Kong Ming Pao1994 65438+February 6)

If this article is compared with Zhang Henshui's Notes on Life, there may be more enlightenment in the combination and expression of complex narrative. Both articles describe the life and achievements of the protagonist. The former focuses on the incident of "angry tearing of music scores", while the latter is some anecdotes in life. It is precisely because of the different contents and themes that the combination of the two articles is very different. Zhang Henshui's Life Notes is an interesting parallel narrative based on Zhang Henshui's life and achievements, which integrates the life course with the interesting things in life. Beethoven's furious score is different. This paper is divided into two parts by combination. The first part is about Beethoven's life and achievements, and the second part is about the special experience of musicians in their creation. First general, then key, and then continuous writing. General narration is the combination of multiple events in time series; The emphasis is on the combination of vertical and horizontal, and the combination of multiple levels. As a summary of the previous life, the author made a prudent choice: from studying hard and being beaten when I was a child to showing my talents when I was young; From visiting Mozart to playing for the first time, he became famous in one fell swoop; From hearing loss to persistent creation, these events are the most important life and creative experiences of musicians in their lives. For example, the narrative of "Raging Music Score" in the second half includes the process of ideological change when musicians create, the different interpretations of the work itself by musicians, and the social evaluation and praise of the heroic movement. The expression of these contents, according to the needs, alternately uses various means such as description, discussion and explanation, and runs through the whole text with narrative as the link, forming a plain narrative style.