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영어

Young Chinese writer Shuang Xuetao is famous for his writing about the traumatic experiences of the people in Northeast China in the 1990s. However, in his short story Assassination of a Novelist, he abandons his distinctive regional characteristics of the vivid depiction of Northeast China and turns to exhibit a broader view of Chinese society. There are two narrative worlds in this story, the reality world and the fiction world. These two worlds influence each other, implying the dynamic relationship of literature and life. The story is about a confused father who loses his child and takes on the task of assassinating a novelist for money. During his task, he finds great similarity between the novelist and himself. He also finds that the novelist’s story has an impact on the reality. Due to the influence of the novelist’s fiction story and his empathy for the novelist, he awakens himself and gives up the assassination. This paper argues that in Assassination of a Novelist, Shuang Xuetao expands his creative vision and shows a broader and more accurate representation of the dilemmas in modern Chinese society. Firstly, by examining the writer’s creative view, the text’s narrative strategy, and the intertextuality of literary works, this paper points out that Shuang Xuetao uses anti-imitation narrative to blur the boundary between reality and fiction and achieves the ultimate presentation of and reflection on the social reality. Secondly, this paper reveals the novel’s presentation of modern Chinese society, highlights the writer’s observation on the social problem of child abduction and trafficking, his criticism of money worship, and his concern about the moral degradation caused by the value of money worship. Traditionally, Chinese people used to hope for chivalry salvation and religious enlightenment to help them solve the problems in daily lives. However, Shuang Xuetao points out the ineffectiveness of both approaches, and he declares that these traditional methods cannot solve the social problems in modern Chinese society. Thus, the paper argues that Shuang Xuetao emphasizes the importance of literary enlightenment and emotional support to solve these problems in contemporary Chinese society. On the one hand, he points out that literature can enlighten human spirit and make the public realize that money is not the ultimate pursuit of life, thus getting rid of the value of money worship. On the other hand, he stresses that emotional support can help people face the frustrations and hardships of modern life. Love for families enables people to confirm their own existence value, and empathy for strangers helps people establish the harmonious interpersonal relationships. With the support of family and mutual trust in society, Shuang Xuetao believes people can support each other in difficulties and hope for a better future.