In prose, there is a kind of theme that is favored by almost all writers, that is, kinship prose.The so-called "kinship prose" refers to the type of prose that describes the feelings of family members and relatives.Emotion is the core element of prose, and kinship is undoubtedly the softest, most sincere and most moving part of emotion.This kind of prose does not need to face the wall to make up, does not need to rack one's brains, as long as mobilizes the emotion accumulation and the life memory, the writing is like turning on the tap.
However, kinship prose is easy to write but difficult to work. In order to achieve the effect of "literary quality and beauty" in terms of literariness and ideology, avoid homogenization and stylization, and make readers refreshing, there are several aspects that need attention.First, the theme expression can be more diversified.Praise of kinship is the voice of every writer from his heart, and it is also a feature and strength of kinship prose, which is illustrated by many famous articles left in literary history.It is the author's true feelings to write about parents who are industrious, kind, thrifty, selfless and even great. "Father's love is like a mountain" and "mother's love is like water".At the same time, the richness and complexity of kinship can also be reflected through other thematic expressions, so as to express the meaning more deeply.Secondly, the past, the golden years, the endless yearning and remembrance, can link up the past little by little, in the narrative form, this is to write about the past.In addition, can we also write "present tense"?The combination of memory and dynamic description of family affection may be more vivid.
Then, how can we push through the old to bring forth the new and create the kinship prose with a new aesthetic atmosphere?We can get useful inspiration from some famous essays.
First, choose a unique narrative perspective.The ancient Chinese poetry and prose all have the artistic tradition of placing feelings on objects, attaching feelings to specific objects, or choosing an angle of observation and expression, which is clearer and more impressive than the flood filled narration.For example, Zhu Ziqing's famous article Back, which describes a father's love for his son on a long journey, focuses on his father's "back" - the fat and tottering back that crosses the railway and climbs up the platform to buy oranges, becoming a classic symbol of father's love.Tie Yang's "Mother's Big Bowl" selects a prop - the big bowl to write about mother.The industrious and thrifty mother only takes out a big bowl to eat on her birthday, which is closely linked with the important moments in her life.The bowl is filled with food, solemn, respectful, nostalgic and other spiritual elements. It is realistic, metaphorical and symbolic.
The second is to write a unique life experience.Tolstoy said that "happy families are similar, and unhappy families have their own misfortunes". In fact, happy families also have their own life style.In the writing of family prose, we should not only see the "similarity", but also write the individuality in the commonness.For example, in Peng Cheng's Sitting Opposite, the author selects a scene of daily life to sit opposite our elderly parents, which is an experience many of us have.However, the careful author had a profound insight in the silently passing time. "Life is a slow process. Between growth, exuberance and decline, they entered the last stage and gradually drifted away.".The temporary stay of "sitting opposite" with parents will eventually usher in a permanent separation, which is really cruel.However, the author is not a pessimist. His sobriety, on the contrary, is just cherishing.Wang Zengqi's "Father and Son Became Brothers for Many Years" wrote about the feelings of father and son. "I think that a modern and humane family must first achieve" no big and no small ". Parents are awe inspiring, and children's" straight pen "is the least interesting".Respect and understanding between generations are important. "Father and son become brothers for many years" is the ideal realm of equal and democratic modern family relations in the author's eyes.Wang Zengqi sublimated his personal experience to the ideological level, leaving a classic family model in words.
The third is to focus on the depth of human nature.It should be recognized that family relationship and kinship relationship are the most complicated and tangled relationship in the world.Love is not all warmth. Inappropriate love is sometimes a burden or even a hurt. The depth and complexity of human nature may be more illuminated here than elsewhere.However, due to taboos and other reasons, the author is often unwilling to write the unpleasant and disharmonious side of the relationship, and simple praise has become the only choice.In fact, how to eliminate the barriers between relatives, how to resolve conflicts, and how to understand and understand each other are more important.For example, Chen Fumin's "Looking at You from afar" almost subverts the image of mother in previous works. He does not focus on praising the virtues of mother, such as kindness and hard work, nor does he focus on expressing his own memory and yearning, but pushes the parent-child relationship to a more equal level of dialogue.The phrase "looking at each other from afar" is full of frustration and bitterness, expanding another dimension of kinship.Peng Xueming's long prose Niang is a confession. Its shock is not about his mother's ill fated life, but that he is painfully ashamed of all kinds of disrespect to his mother as the son of man, thus exposing the universal phenomenon of the unequal affection between mother and son, which makes people introspect.The author's extraordinary courage to self dissect is really rare.
Chekhov said, "Originality is the life of art".In the writing of kinship prose, the author should try his best to get out of the comfort zone, avoid the artistic stereotype, carefully ponder the topic selection, conception, presentation and other aspects, and come up with his own ideas.
(The author is the vice chairman of Hebei Writers Association)
