论余华长篇小说的死亡叙事

Abstract

Death constitutes the profound background and core dynamic of Yu Hua's novels. Focusing on Yu Hua's five major novels (excluding Chronicle of a Blood Merchant), this paper systematically analyzes the internal constitution, operational mechanisms, and ideological evolution of his “death narrative” from a narratological perspective. First, the study classifies death events into “Major Deaths” and “Minor Deaths” based on their plot functions, demonstrating the complementary tension between structural framework construction and historical background rendering. Second, by examining narrative chronology, the paper identifies three forms: “Destined Death,” “Sudden Death,” and “Post-Mortem Death,” It reveals how the manipulation of narrative time—from fatalistic foreshadowing to retrospective reconstruction—constructs a multi-dimensional experience of tragedy and reflection. Third, the paper analyzes the structural models of death narratives, pointing out that “Explosive Death,” “Gradual Fading,” and “Ritualistic Destruction” correspond to external violent devastation, compromise under time's erosion, and spiritual transcendence, respectively. Finally, the paper traces the evolution of Yu Hua's death narrative from the indifferent spectatorship of his avant-garde period to the fatalistic compassion of his transition period, and ultimately to the search for spiritual redemption in his new century works. The study concludes that Yu Hua transforms the philosophical proposition of “being-towards- death” into concrete narrative rhetoric. By establishing an aesthetic distance through the reorganization of time and form, he achieves a “reverse confirmation” of life's resilience via the reconstruction of death, thereby offering a unique literary response to the existential state of individuals within history.