2002 Chinese Short Story Annual Selection

Author: Chinese Fiction Society
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-04-01
Features: Short stories are the most challenging for writers because they demand extremely rigorous language requirements. The language of short stories is not only for narrating the story but, more importantly, it must also refer to the self—the narrator and the author—directly reflecting the unique use of linguistic sense, tone, and various rhetorical devices by the narrator and author, creating a linguistic carrier that showcases the writer's narrative style. "The uniqueness of a novelist's language lies not in using words others don't, but in giving ordinary words unexpected meanings." The pursuit of implied meaning and unexpected imagery is a common aesthetic function of short stories. In novels and novellas, the storytelling function of language is primary, its self-referential meaning can only be contained within the domain of its storytelling function—that is, reflecting a narrative style through the narration of the story's development. In contrast, short stories directly embody the creative subject's meticulous construction and creation of language, reflecting the writer's full exploration of the meaning-bearing function of linguistic symbols. The renowned short story master Wang Zengqi deeply realized: "A novelist's language is part of his personality. Language reflects a novelist's fundamental attitude toward life." In reality, every true master of the short story is also a master of language, a fact well-known to all.