Baliuta, K. A. (2022). Traveling back in time through text (on Ge Fei’s “Jinse”)

The article is devoted to the linguistic and compositional analysis of “Jinse” (Brocade Zither, 1993), a short story by Ge Fei, a modern Chinese avant-garde prose writer (born in 1964). In the story, the main character, Feng Zicun, finds himself in various time periods of Chinese history, switching...

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Main Author: К. A. Baliuta
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. RANEPA 2022-12-01
Series:Шаги
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Online Access:https://steps.ranepa.ru/jour/article/view/128
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author К. A. Baliuta
author_facet К. A. Baliuta
author_sort К. A. Baliuta
collection DOAJ
description The article is devoted to the linguistic and compositional analysis of “Jinse” (Brocade Zither, 1993), a short story by Ge Fei, a modern Chinese avant-garde prose writer (born in 1964). In the story, the main character, Feng Zicun, finds himself in various time periods of Chinese history, switching roles from a mysteriously imprisoned hermit to a medieval literatus to a tea merchant and, finally, to an ancient state ruler in the time of Western Chu (206–202 BC). The main features of the story include a complex narrative structure represented by episodes tied together in a system of “dream in a dream”, each episode going farther back in time, as well as a complex language style. The text of the story starts with the modern Chinese language and by the end gradually shows more and more similarities to the classical Chinese language wenyan with its classical syntax structure, conjunctions, one-syllable lexis, parallelism, rhythm, etc. The text of the story actually acts as a “time-machine” that invites the reader to travel back in time. Such features make Ge Fei’s prose very challenging for a researcher and a translator. The article also addresses the concept of time in Ge Fei’s fiction and a significant number of allusions in his writings (as the story title is an allusion to Li Shangyin’s poem).
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spelling doaj-art-5f2c1a472ce94e2ebe934f5a120c481c2025-07-19T15:03:27ZengRussian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. RANEPAШаги2412-94102782-17652022-12-018413615110.22394/2412-9410-2022-8-4-136-151127Baliuta, K. A. (2022). Traveling back in time through text (on Ge Fei’s “Jinse”)К. A. Baliuta0Московский государственный университет им. М. В. Ломоносова; Национальны исследовательски университет «Высшая школа экономики»The article is devoted to the linguistic and compositional analysis of “Jinse” (Brocade Zither, 1993), a short story by Ge Fei, a modern Chinese avant-garde prose writer (born in 1964). In the story, the main character, Feng Zicun, finds himself in various time periods of Chinese history, switching roles from a mysteriously imprisoned hermit to a medieval literatus to a tea merchant and, finally, to an ancient state ruler in the time of Western Chu (206–202 BC). The main features of the story include a complex narrative structure represented by episodes tied together in a system of “dream in a dream”, each episode going farther back in time, as well as a complex language style. The text of the story starts with the modern Chinese language and by the end gradually shows more and more similarities to the classical Chinese language wenyan with its classical syntax structure, conjunctions, one-syllable lexis, parallelism, rhythm, etc. The text of the story actually acts as a “time-machine” that invites the reader to travel back in time. Such features make Ge Fei’s prose very challenging for a researcher and a translator. The article also addresses the concept of time in Ge Fei’s fiction and a significant number of allusions in his writings (as the story title is an allusion to Li Shangyin’s poem).https://steps.ranepa.ru/jour/article/view/128ge feimodern chinese literaturelinguistic analysis of the literary textchinese avant-garde fiction
spellingShingle К. A. Baliuta
Baliuta, K. A. (2022). Traveling back in time through text (on Ge Fei’s “Jinse”)
Шаги
ge fei
modern chinese literature
linguistic analysis of the literary text
chinese avant-garde fiction
title Baliuta, K. A. (2022). Traveling back in time through text (on Ge Fei’s “Jinse”)
title_full Baliuta, K. A. (2022). Traveling back in time through text (on Ge Fei’s “Jinse”)
title_fullStr Baliuta, K. A. (2022). Traveling back in time through text (on Ge Fei’s “Jinse”)
title_full_unstemmed Baliuta, K. A. (2022). Traveling back in time through text (on Ge Fei’s “Jinse”)
title_short Baliuta, K. A. (2022). Traveling back in time through text (on Ge Fei’s “Jinse”)
title_sort baliuta k a 2022 traveling back in time through text on ge fei s jinse
topic ge fei
modern chinese literature
linguistic analysis of the literary text
chinese avant-garde fiction
url https://steps.ranepa.ru/jour/article/view/128
work_keys_str_mv AT kabaliuta baliutaka2022travelingbackintimethroughtextongefeisjinse