Soul Mountain
Page 56
It is a writer's insights in grasping truth that determine the quality of a work and word games or writing techniques cannot serve as substitutes. Indeed, there are numerous definitions of truth and how it is dealt with varies from person to person but it can be seen at a glance whether a writer is embellishing human phenomena or making a full and honest portrayal. The literary criticism of a certain ideology turned truth and untruth into semantic analysis, but such principles and tenets are of little relevance in literary creation.
However whether or not the writer confronts truth is not just an issue of creative methodology, it is closely linked to his attitude towards writing. Truth when the pen is taken up at the same time implies that one is sincere after one puts down the pen. Here truth is not simply an evaluation of literature but at the same time has ethical connotations. It is not the writer's duty to preach morality and while striving to portray various people in the world he also unscrupulously exposes his self, even the secrets of his inner mind. For the writer truth in literature approximates ethics, it is the ultimate ethics of literature.
In the hands of a writer with a serious attitude to writing even literary fabrications are premised on the portrayal of the truth of human life, and this has been the vital life force of works that have endured from ancient times to the present. It is precisely for this reason that Greek tragedy and Shakespeare will never become outdated.
Literature does not simply make a replica of reality but penetrates the surface layers and reaches deep into the inner workings of reality; it removes false illusions, looks down from great heights at ordinary happenings, and with a broad perspective reveals happenings in their entirety.
Of course literature also relies on the imagination but this sort of journey in the mind is not just putting together a whole lot of rubbish. Imagination that is divorced from true feelings and fabrications that are divorced from the basis of life experiences can only end up insipid and weak, and works that fail to convince the author himself will not be able to move readers. Indeed, literature does not only rely on the experiences of ordinary life nor is the writer bound by what he has personally experienced. It is possible for the things heard and seen through a language carrier and the things related in the literary works of earlier writers all to be transformed into one's own feelings. This too is the magic of the language of literature.
As with a curse or a blessing language has the power to stir body and mind. The art of language lies in the presenter being able to convey his feelings to others, it is not some sign system or semantic structure requiring nothing more than grammatical structures. If the living person behind language is forgotten, semantic expositions easily turn into games of the intellect.
Language is not merely concepts and the carrier of concepts, it simultaneously activates the feelings and the senses and this is why signs and signals cannot replace the language of living people. The will, motives, tone and emotions behind what someone says cannot be fully expressed by semantics and rhetoric alone. The connotations of the language of literature must be voiced, spoken by living people, to be fully expressed. So as well as serving as a carrier of thought literature must also appeal to the auditory senses. The human need for language is not simply for the transmission of meaning, it is at the same time listening to and affirming a person's existence.
Borrowing from Descartes, it could be said of the writer: I say and therefore I am. However, the I of the writer can be the writer himself, can be equated to the narrator, or become the characters of a work. As the narrator-subject can also be he and you, it is tripartite. The fixing of a key-speaker pronoun is the starting point for portraying perceptions and from this various narrative patterns take shape. It is during the process of searching for his own narrative method that the writer gives concrete form to his perceptions.
In my fiction I use pronouns instead of the usual characters and also use the pronouns I, you, and he to tell about or to focus on the protagonist. The portrayal of the one character by using different pronouns creates a sense of distance. As this also provides actors on the stage with a broader psychological space I have also introduced the changing of pronouns into my drama.
The writing of fiction or drama has not and will not come to an end and there is no substance to flippant announcements of the death of certain genres of literature or art.
Born at the start of human civilisation, like life, language is full of wonders and its expressive capacity is limitless. It is the work of the writer to discover and develop the latent potential inherent in language. The writer is not the Creator and he cannot eradicate the world even if it is too old. He also cannot establish some new ideal world even if the present world is absurd and beyond human comprehension. However he can certainly make innovative statements either by adding to what earlier people have said or else starting where earlier people stopped.
To subvert literature was Cultural Revolution rhetoric. Literature did not die and writers were not destroyed. Every writer has his place on the bookshelf and he has life as long as he has readers. There is no greater consolation for a writer than to be able to leave a book in humankind's vast treasury of literature that will continue to be read in future times.
Literature is only actualised and of interest at that moment in time when the writer writes it and the reader reads it. Unless it is pretence, to write for the future only deludes oneself and others as well. Literature is for the living and moreover affirms the present of the living. It is this eternal present and this confirmation of individual life that is the absolute reason why literature is literature, if one insists on seeking a reason for this huge thing that exists of itself.
When writing is not a livelihood or when one is so engrossed in writing that one forgets why one is writing and for whom one is writing it becomes a necessity and one will write compulsively and give birth to literature. It is this non-utilitarian aspect of literature that is fundamental to literature. That the writing of literature has become a profession is an ugly outcome of the division of labour in modern society and a very bitter fruit for the writer.
This is especially the case in the present age where the market economy has become pervasive and books have also become commodities. Everywhere there are huge undiscriminating markets and not just individual writers but even the societies and movements of past literary schools have all gone. If the writer does not bend to the pressures of the market and refuses to stoop to manufacturing cultural products by writing to satisfy the tastes of fashions and trends, he must make a living by some other means. Literature is not a best-selling book or a book on a ranked list and authors promoted on television are engaged in advertising rather than in writing. Freedom in writing is not conferred and cannot be purchased but comes from an inner need in the writer himself.
Instead of saying that Buddha is in the heart it would be better to say that freedom is in the heart and it simply depends on whether one makes use of it. If one exchanges freedom for something else then the bird that is freedom will fly off, for this is the cost of freedom.
The writer writes what he wants without concern for recompense not only to affirm his self but also to challenge society. This challenge is not pretence and the writer has no need to inflate his ego by becoming a hero or a fighter. Heroes and fighters struggle to achieve some great work or to establish some meritorious deed and these lie beyond the scope of literary works. If the writer wants to challenge society it must be through language and he must rely on the characters and incidents of his works, otherwise he can only harm literature. Literature is not angry shouting and furthermore cannot turn an individual's indignation into accusations. It is only when the feelings of the writer as an individual are dispersed in a work that his feelings will withstand the ravages of time and live on for a long time.
Therefore it is actually not the challenge of the writer to society but rather the challenge of his works. An enduring work is of course a powerful response to the times and society of the writer. The clamour of
the writer and his actions may have vanished but as long as there are readers his voice in his writings continues to reverberate.
Indeed such a challenge cannot transform society. It is merely an individual aspiring to transcend the limitations of the social ecology and taking a very inconspicuous stance. However this is by no means an ordinary stance for it is one that takes pride in being human. It would be sad if human history is only manipulated by the unknowable laws and moves blindly with the current so that the different voices of individuals cannot be heard. It is in this sense that literature fills in the gaps of history. When the great laws of history are not used to explain humankind it will be possible for people to leave behind their own voices. History is not all that humankind possesses, there is also the legacy of literature. In literature the people are inventions but they retain an essential belief in their own self-worth.
Honourable members of the Academy, I thank you for awarding this Nobel Prize to literature, to literature that is unwavering in its independence, that avoids neither human suffering nor political oppression and that furthermore does not serve politics. I thank all of you for awarding this most prestigious prize for works that are far removed from the writings of the market, works that have aroused little attention but are actually worth reading. At the same time, I also thank the Swedish Academy for allowing me to ascend this dais to speak before the eyes of the world. A frail individual's weak voice that is hardly worth listening to and that normally would not be heard in the public media has been allowed to address the world. However I believe that this is precisely the meaning of the Nobel Prize and I thank everyone for this opportunity to speak.
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Translation by Mabel Lee
Major Publications by Gao Xingjian
Xiandai xiaoshuo jiqiao chutan (A Preliminary Discussion of the Art of Modern Fiction). Guangzhou: Huacheng Chubanshe, 1981. [Literary criticism]
You zhi gezi jiao Hongchunr (A Pigeon Called Red Beak). Beijing Chubanshe, 1985. [A novella]
Gao Xingjian xiju ji (Collected Plays of Gao Xingjian). Beijing: Qunzhong Chubanshe, 1985. [Includes the plays Juedui xinhao (Absolute Signal), Chezhan (Bus Stop), Yeren (Wild Man), Duibai (Soliloquy), Xiandai zhezixi sichu (Four Modern Opera Excerpts)]
Dui yizhong xiandai xiju de zuiqiu (In Search of a Modern Form of Dramatic Representation). Beijing: Zhongguo Xiju Chubanshe, 1987. [Essays on theatre and dramatic representation]
Gei wo laoye mai yugan (Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather). Taipei: Lianhe fWenxue Chubanshe, 1988. [A collection of short stories]
Lingshan (Soul Mountain). Taipei: Lianjing Chubanshe, 1990. [A novel]
Shanhaijing zhuan (Story of the Classic of Mountains and Seas). Hong Kong: Tiandi Tushu Youxian Gongsi, 1993. [A play based on myths and legends in the Classic of Mountains and Seas]
Dialoguer/Interloquer. Paris: MEET, 1994. [French version by Gao Xingjian]
Gao Xingjian xiju liuzhong (Six plays by Gao Xingjian). Taipei: Dijiao, 1995. [Includes the plays Bi’an (Other Shore), Mingcheng (Netherworld), Sheng sheng man bianzou (Variations on a Slow Tune), Shanhaijing zhuan (Story of the Classic of Mountains and Seas), Taowang (Absconding), Sheng si jie (Between Life and Death), Duihua yu fanjie (Dialogue and Rebuttal), Yeyoushen (Nocturnal Wanderer)]
Le Somnambule. Carnières-Morlanwelz (Belgium): Editions Lansman, 1995. [French version by Gao Xingjian]
Ink Paintings by Gao Xingjian. Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 1995.
Goût de l’encre. Paris: Editions voix Richard Meir, 1996.
Meiyou zhuyi (Without Isms). Hong Kong: Tiandi Tushu Youxian Gongsi, 1996. [Essays on literature and art]
Zhoumo sichongzou (Weekend Quartet). Hong Kong: Xin Shiji Chubanshe, 1996. [Includes the plays Zhoumo sichongzou (Weekend Quartet), Shunjian (One Instant), Sheng sheng man bianzou (Variations on a Slow Tune), Wo shuo ciwei (I Tell the Hedgehog)]
Au plus près du réel: Dialogues sur l’écriture (1994–1997), co-author Denis Bourgeois. Paris: Éditions de l’aube, 1997. [Recorded conversations on literature over three years between Gao Xingjian and Denis Bourgeois]
Quatre quatuors pour un week-end. Carnières-Morlanwelz (Belgium): Editions Lansman, 1998. [French version by Gao Xingjian]
L’Encre et la lumière. Paris: Editions voix Richard Meir, 1998.
Yige ren de shengjing (One Man’s Bible). Taipei: Lianjing Chubanshe, 1999. [A novel]
Une Autre esthétique. Paris: Editions Cercle d’art, 2000.
English Language Translations of Gao Xingjian’s Works
Aspfors, Lena and Torbjörn Lodén, trans., “The Voice of the Individual”, The Stockholm Journal of East Asian Studies, 3 (1993).
Besio, Kimberley, trans., “Bus Stop: A Lyrical Comedy on Life in One Act” in Haiping Yan, ed., Theatre and Society: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Drama, Armonk, New York and London: M. E. Sharpe, 1998.
Gilbert C. F. Fong, trans., The Other Shore: Plays by Gao Xingjian, Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1999.
Lau, Winnie, Deborah Sauviat and Martin Williams, trans., “Without Isms”, The Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia, 27 & 28 (1995–1996).
Lee, Mabel, trans., Soul Mountain, HarperCollins, Sydney, 2000.
Ng, Mau-sang, trans., “Contemporary Technique and National Character in Fiction”, Renditions, 19 & 20 (1983).
Riley, Jo, trans., “The Other Side: A Contemporary Drama Without Acts” in Martha P. Y. Cheung and Jane C. C. Lai, An Oxford Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Drama, Oxford and New York: Hong Kong University Press, 1997.
Roubicek, Bruno, trans., “Wild Man: A Contemporary Chinese Spoken Drama”, Asian Theatre Journal, 7. 2 (1990).
Critical Works in English on Gao Xingjian
Comprehensive listings of works on Gao Xingjian in Chinese, Swedish, French, German, Japanese and English are contained in Gilbert C. F. Fong (trans.), The Other Shore: Plays by Gao Xingjian, Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1999, and in Henry Z. Y. Zhao, Towards a Modern Zen Theatre: Gao Xingjian and Chinese Theatre Experimentalism, London: SOAS Publications, 2000 (in print).
Barmé, Geremie, “A Touch of the Absurd: Introducing Gao Xingjian, and His Play The Bus Stop”, Renditions, 19 & 20 (1983).
Burckhardt, Olivier, “The Voice of One in the Wilderness”, Quadrant (April 2000).
Chen Xiaomei, “A Wildman between Two Cultures: Some Paradigmatic Remarks on ‘Influence Studies’”, Comparative Literature Studies, 29. 4 (1992).
Lee, Mabel, “Without Politics: Gao Xingjian on Literary Creation”, The Stockholm Journal of East Asian Studies, 6 (1995).
“Walking Out of Other People’s Prisons: Liu Zaifu and Gao Xingjian on Chinese Literature in the 1990s”, Asian & African Studies, 5. 1 (1996).
“Personal Freedom in Twentieth Century China: Reclaiming the Self in Yang Lian’s Yi and Gao Xingjian’s Lingshan”, in Mabel Lee and Michael Wilding, eds, History, Literature and Society: Essays in Honour of S. N. Mukherjee, Sydney and New Delhi: Sydney Association for Studies in Culture and Society, 1997.
“Gao Xingjian’s Lingshan/Soul Mountain: Modernism and the Chinese Writer”, HEAT, 4 (1997).
“Gao Xingjian’s Dialogue with Two Dead Poets from Shaoxing: Xu Wei and Lu Xun”, in R. D. Findeisen and R. H. Gassman, eds, Autumn Floods: Essays in Honour of Márian Gálik, Bern: Lang, 1998.
“Gao Xingjian on the Issue of Literary Creation for the Modern Writer”, Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 9. 1 & 2 (1999).
“Pronouns as Protagonists: Gao Xingjian’s Lingshan as Autobiography”, China Studies, 5 (1999).
Li Jianyi, “Gao Xingjian’s The Bus-Stop: Chinese Traditional Theatre and Western Avant-garde”, Masters thesis, University of Alberta, 1991.
Lodén, Torbjörn, “World Literature with Chinese Characteristics: On a Novel by Gao Xingjian”, The Stockholm Journal of East Asian Studies, 4 (1993).
Ma Sen, “The Theatre of the Absurd in Mainland China: Gao Xingjian’s The Bus Stop”, Issues and Studies: A Journal of C
hina Studies and International Affairs, 25. 8 (1989).
Quah Sy Ren, “Gao Xingjian and China’s Alternative Theatre of the 1980s”, M. Phil. thesis, University of Cambridge, 1997.
The Theatre of Gao Xingjian: Experimentation Within the Chinese Context and Towards New Modes of Representation”, PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, 1999.