Selected Short Novels of Zhang Chengzhi

Author: Zhang Chengzhi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-10-01
Features: The development and peak of the novella in the New Period literature is a thread. When many writers favor the creation of long novels and neglect short stories, recognizing the unique value of the novella genre in fiction is meaningful. The edited "New Classics Library" series of novellas attempts to do this work. The length of a novel should not be an issue. Long, medium, and short are not fixed sizes; as long as they are appropriate, the novel genre should not be limited by length. To generalize that "the shorter, the better" or that "long novels represent a writer's level of creation" would both be inappropriate. Every genre deserves respect and dedication. The novella, sandwiched between the long and the short, has a distinctive place in the history of New Period literature. Interestingly, in the past two decades, the traces of some important writers in literary history are often associated with their novellas. For example, Qiwang for A Cheng, Transparent Red Carrot for Mo Yan, Dad Dad for Han Shaogong, Xiao Baozhuang for Wang Anyi, Early Records of Shangzhou for Jia Pingwa, Northern Rivers for Zhang Chengzhi, The Temptation of Kangding for Ma Yuan, Old Floating Clouds for Can Xue, Husbands and Concubines for Su Tong, Story of Jujube Trees for Ye Zhaoyan, and so on. When flipping through the works of contemporary Chinese literature with varying levels of quality, you can often find scholars praising the novellas of writers. This fact seems to suggest that the art of fiction in the New Period matured in the novella. After the 1990s, the writing of long novels by some mature writers is closely related to the confidence and training they gained from it.