Atonement by Ian McEwan; Shanghai Translation Publishing House
[Bright Calligraphy]
Ian McEwan, a British national writer, was born in England in 1948. At the age of 27, he became famous for his debut novel The First Love, The Last Ritual. So far, 17 works have been translated into Chinese and published. Ian McEwan expresses ambiguous and complicated human nature and social life in a concise, elegant, accurate and clear narrative. He is good at reducing the social landscape to the interior of family, gender and emotion, starting from the conflict between people and themselves and society, and thinking about the spiritual state of the times.
Recently, Ian McEwan came to China for a week-long cultural exchange at the invitation of Shanghai Translation Publishing House and Renmin University of China. During this period, Ian McEwan held a conversation with the writer Ge Fei in the Modern Chinese Literature Museum. The topic of the conversation was: fictional narrative in the era of mass media.
Ge Fei, a writer and professor of the Chinese Department of Tsinghua University, mainly teaches writing, novel narratology and other courses. In 2015, he won the 9th Mao Dun Literature Award for his "Jiangnan Trilogy". Ian McEwan and Gefei have many similarities: their works have been translated into many languages, and they are representatives of Chinese and British contemporary literature.
In the era of mass media, what can novels provide?
Ian McEwan: I firmly believe that this form of fiction will not be replaced by the mass media. In Dickens' time, it was the first time to attach importance to the communication between literature and readers. It can be said that under the interaction of mass media and literature, readers were eager to know whether the characters in novels survived or not. Dickens was probably the first writer to hold a book meeting to meet readers and make a speech in front of the public. He was also the first to realize the importance of receiving media interviews as a writer. So Dickens is an ancestor figure on the topic we are discussing today. He is also one of the first British writers to realize and attach importance to communication with the public.
Gefei: I quite agree with what Mr. McEwan said, "Novels have a certain particularity in today's mass media era, which is difficult to replace by other genres, including movies." Talking about this topic reminds me of a question raised by Rousseau in his article "On Science and Art". In the era Rousseau lived in, the conflict between social discourse, mechanism and individuals was unbearable. This is because the meaning of individual existence must depend on the evaluation of others, and everyone is making a voice. Literature or cultural discourse, we are parroting in the noisy world. In Heidegger's words, we are gossiping in cliches. Therefore, Rousseau strongly rejected literature and art in that era. However, Rousseau only liked novels, that is to say, he was very positive about novels when he rejected literature and art.
In his keynote speech at Renmin University of China the day before yesterday, Mr. McEwan made a profound reflection on the social function of novels. Mr. McEwan believes that the novel has established an extremely rich field of communication with others; The concept of the author of the novel is not important. What is important is that the novel provides a wide space for communication between different voices, thoughts and emotions. Even though people do not agree with each other's ideas, they can still be moved by the narrative of the novel. I think this is the power of fiction.
Where will novelists go in the Internet era?
Ian McEwan: A novelist seems to be standing in the storm of information or unreal information. In the past, the main function of novels was to explore people's hearts and reveal the relationship between people or between people and the society in which they live, which is still the main function of novels today. In my life, the prediction that "the era of fiction is over" and "fiction is going to die" has been heard many times, but I personally believe that fiction will continue to survive, because novelists will find a static center in this storm of huge information or false information, where these serious novelists will continue to explore the human heart, Continue to study all these truths and lies.
Ge Fei: After the rise of the Internet, we will feel its convenience on the one hand, but also deeply troubled. I don't think that writers still have some authority to spread truth in this world in today's Internet era. On the contrary, through writing, writers bring personal confusion into the scope of thinking, communicate with readers and seek recognition. Hemingway once advised the writer: never care what you think, you should pay attention to what your characters think. You must be close to the characters in your writing and objectify them. Don't write those characters as your own shadow. You should respect your characters, that is to say, respect the others who talk to you, and establish a real dialogue relationship with them. I quite agree with Mr. McEwan's judgment just now. More than 100 years ago, for example, in the age of Flaubert, the novel had predicted that it would die. Today, it does not die. I think that novels, such a special genre, are still effective or powerful today.
How do Ian McEwan and Gefei interpret the novel Atonement?
Ian McEwan: When I handed the novel Atonement to the publisher, I told them that it was difficult for the novel to be read because it was mainly written for other writers. Because the novel Atonement is more about reflecting the power of literature and imagination in our life, and the power of imagination may be abused. The inspiration for this book comes from Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey in the early 19th century.
Atonement is about Brione's life as a novelist and a writer. In this novel, I concentrated the whole look back and reflection on the past in one person's life. She recalled that she once made a big mistake, which led to an irreparable tragedy, and two young lovers were separated and finally died. So it is the same when we look back on history. Looking back on history is a very long and hard self search, through which we can obtain a redemption, atonement, or reach a reconciliation with the past.
Gefei: On the surface, the central plot of this work is a criminal case. I think Mr. McEwan is very patient in setting up the suspense and establishing a large framework for the whole narrative. But after I read the novel, I had another idea. I think Atonement is also about literature, especially the novel itself. At the beginning of the novel, it was written that a teenage girl was going to rehearse a play. Due to various reasons, the play was not arranged. At the end of the novel, when the protagonist Brioney was 77 years old, the play was finally rehearsed on her birthday. So I think it has two basic clues. The first clue is the love story derived from the central plot. As love has not yet been fully developed, it is completed through the communication between the two protagonists. Mr. McEwan wrote that the correspondence between them was particularly beautiful and moving, especially during the World War II and the Dunkirk retreat.
The second clue is the self-conscious presentation of Brioney, the "guilty man", mixed with fantasy, wrong behavior and the impulse to atone. I am particularly interested in the following clue. Because when Briony had the impulse to atone, the two people who were hurt by her had already died: Robbie Turner and Cecilia died in June and September 1940 respectively. Their love letters were later kept in the museum. This brings up a problem, that is, the character Briony wants to atone for her sins, which is actually impossible. As a novelist, she can only complete an imaginative or symbolic atonement by repeatedly modifying the fate of Robbie and Cecilia. It is here that I am most moved by this novel. It is precisely through this symbolic act of atonement that the author, Mr. McEwan, has made a profound reflection on the function of the novel in today's society.
(This article is based on the recording of "Fictional Narration in the Mass Media Era -- McEwan's Dialogue with Ge Fei" held in the Modern Chinese Literature Museum.)
(Author: Tan Hua)
