Chinese associates of Y. Zamyatin: Zhang Tianyi and Lao She

Abstract

We explore the dystopian novels of the 1930s by Chinese novelists Zhang Tianyi “Ghostland Diary” (1931) and Lao She “Cat Country” (1932). We give brief information about the specifics of the work of Chinese writers who are not known to a wide range of modern domestic readers and literary critics. We reveal the typological proximity of these works to the dystopian novel by Y.I. Zamyatin “We”. We identify the literary predecessors of the analyzed novels, the connection with the works of Russian, Chinese, and world literature. We note the role of criticism in the fate of authors and their creations. We designate traditional and innovative genre and style features of books. We analyze in detail the plot-compositional structure, figurative system, and ideological content of the novels. We consider an ironic description of various spheres of life: the party system, elections, the education system, wars, and the creative activity of decadent poets. The features of narration associated with the artistic functions of narrators are studied in detail. The synthetic nature of the novels, combining elements of several literary genres, is noted. We reveal that the form of hyperbolic generalization of modern realities, elements of satire and irony in the depiction of society gave the works a timeless and extraspatial character, taking them beyond the limits of Chinese reality. We form an idea of the genre-typological community of Zhang Tianyi and Lao She’s warning novels, exposing myths about the ideal society of the 20th century.