MCLC: Mo Yan and the Nobel lit prize (8)

Denton, Kirk denton.2 at osu.edu
Mon Oct 15 11:01:13 EDT 2012


MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Mo Yan and the Nobel lit prize (8)
***********************************************************

What bothers me in some of the reports on Mo Yan’s winning the Nobel prize
is the “political reductionism”—that is, reducing Mo Yan to nothing but a
toady to, or apologist for, the CCP just because he is a party member and
holds a position in the Writers Association. Can’t we broaden the
discussion to include Mo Yan’s works? When we take into account his novels
and short fiction, such a reductionist position is simply not tenable, I
think. For me, Mo Yan’s works are innovative and imaginative in narrative
style and daring and provocative in terms of the social and political
issues he is willing to tackle—a wonderful combination of narrative
experimentation, good story telling, and social and political engagement.
And what’s entirely missing in the discussion is the beauty of Mo Yan’s
descriptive prose. An old-fashioned idea, I know, but isn’t it Mo Yan’s
linguistic style that makes reading him so pleasurable?

Kirk  



More information about the MCLC mailing list