On the Narrative Transformation and Cultural Implications of Ge Fei's Jiangnan Trilogy

Abstract

As a significant representative of contemporary Chinese avant-garde literature, Ge Fei's creative journey reflects the overarching trend of avant-garde literature shifting from experimental writing towards realism. Centered on the Jiangnan Trilogy, this paper explores Ge Fei's transformation and exploration in narrative structure, characterization, and cultural implications. Through close textual analysis, it reveals how Ge Fei developed a distinctive "avant-garde realism" style during the avant-garde literature's "outward turn," and examines its significance within contemporary Chinese literature. A core characteristic of avant-garde literature is textual "autonomy" – where the fictional world prioritizes constructing its own linguistic system over directly reflecting reality. This trait is particularly evident in Ge Fei's early works. For instance, The Lost Boat employs "deficit narration" to create narrative uncertainty, forming a self-contained space of meaning. Brown Flocks employs non-linear narration and symbolic imagery to construct a novelistic world suffused with hallucinatory hues, a technique that intensifies avant-garde literature's deconstruction of traditional realist narrative models.This external turn signified writers integrating real-world concerns into their self-contained textual structures. Ge Fei's Jiangnan Trilogy epitomists this transformation. These three novels respectively examine the Xinhai Revolution (Peach Blossoms and Human Faces), the socialist construction era (Mountains and Rivers Entering Dreams), and the market economy period (Spring's End in Jiangnan). Through the shifting fortunes of three generations in Jiangnan, they depict a century of historical upheaval in Chinese society.