Mo Yan's Novels from Intertextual Theory

The flow of language. There, it implicitly contains the writer's active reflective consciousness and is also an indispensable phenomenon in current literary creation when everyone seems to have read and heard it somewhere. Readers explore that "chaotic" world of language themselves to reach another expression.

4.2.1. Satirical and allusive discourse

Mo Yan’s novels always present before the reader’s eyes a picture of a large society with different fates and situations. To enter that colorful world, Mo Yan uses satire and allusions imbued with the meaning of play as a way to look directly at reality, making each work a collection of many different and many new, rich and diverse things. With old materials, his works appear as a new “language” game, the nature of the game is revealed through the complex states of memories, dreams, traumas, differences… of the characters.

Parody (Greek: “Parodia”, literally “repetition”), in poetics, is a method of recreating a different style, a different speech in a work. According to the presentation in section 2.1.3.2, Genette believes that : Parody is a minimal modification of the original, it has the characteristics of a language game. It is a form of intertextuality related to the intention/unintention of the creator of the parody code. Don Quijote by M. Cervantes (1547 - 1616) is considered the greatest parody of this period, deeply and strongly parodying the genre of martial arts novels. Through Don Quijote , Cervantes turned the talented nobleman of La Mancha into a deep parody of the ancient knight. It is an image to depose the contemporary views of fake knights, while at the same time pointing out the obsolescence and backwardness of old aesthetic concepts. Typically in postmodern literature, James Joyce and Franz Kafka are considered masters of satirical literature. James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) is a novel that parodies Homer's Odyssey . The images of Leopold Bloom, his wife Molly Bloom and Stephen Dedalus, readers can easily associate with the characters Ulysses, Penelope and Telemachus in the Odyssey . However, the heroic and brave stature of Ulysses is replaced by a mediocre and weak Leopold Bloom. In contrast to Penelope's faithful and patient waiting for her husband for twenty years is the sexual desire that leads to adultery of his wife Molly... Kafka's works are examples.

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typical in modern satirical literature. Kafka parodies characters in Greek mythology. In the short story Poseidon , the writer turns a powerful, handsome lord in mythology into a grumpy old man, drowning in a pile of paperwork, parodying the motif of changing appearance of the fairy tale in Metamorphosis . In Vietnam, parody has appeared for a long time in the image of clowns in Cheo art. In written literature, the phenomenon of parody appears in the works of Ho Xuan Huong (parodying the patriarchal regime, parodying literati students, parodying monks...), Nguyen Khuyen (parodying bachelors, mandarins...); Vu Trong Phung's novels (sarcastic form...). During the renovation period, parody has become the main creative technique of Nguyen Huy Thiep, Pham Thi Hoai, Ho Anh Thai, Nguyen Binh Phuong,...

Returning to Mo Yan, he used the art of parody and allusion when building strange and paradoxical character images, which is "a type of artistic image organization (image, style, genre) based on the illusion of laughter, exaggeration, the odd combination and contrast of the illusory with the real, the beautiful with the ugly, the tragic with the comic, the realistic with the caricature" [24] . Thanks to this, the characters become more attractive but also more haunting in the writer's novels.

The satirical nature in Mo Yan's novels is first expressed in the conflict between traditional culture and modern culture. Under the rule of the patriarchal feudal regime, Chinese women were always restrained in conservative, backward thoughts of "three obediences, four virtues". At this time, women who rebelled against the morality of a regime that had been shaken to its roots appeared in the writer's novels. Removing the burden of the foot-binding custom and the concept of "where parents put children, there they sit" that had eroded the minds of women for thousands of years, causing physical and mental pain to women, Mo Yan let Dai Phuong Lien ( Red Sorghum ), Lu Toan Nhi ( The Treasure of Life ), and Sun Mi Nuong ( Sandalwood Shape ) react strongly to society, fighting against those invisible bonds. On the day she got into the palanquin to go to her husband's house, Dai Phuong Lien reacted against feudal ideology when she tore the curtain of the palanquin, let go of her veil, and was intoxicated by Tu Chiem Ngao's male sweat. "She inhaled and exhaled the scent of a man, and in her heart, waves of spring love were definitely rising" [84, p.85]. Lu Toan Nhi was crushed by the ideology of "male superiority and female inferiority", becoming resentful.

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hatred. Lu Toan Nhi satisfied that patriarchal ideology by "asking for the blood of men in the world". The act of "asking for the blood" of other men had gone far beyond the integrity of a woman. The nine children who were not of the Thuong Quan family lineage were like a painful slap, full of resentment towards her husband's family and towards the patriarchal system. Or Ton Mi Nuong once resented not having tiny feet, but she beat her mother-in-law like a tiger when she tried to use a knife to cut off her feet, causing her mother-in-law to become sick and die of resentment. From then on, even Giap Con and her father-in-law, the "number one executioner" Trieu Giap, could not stop her healthy steps to find the "love garden" with the Tien Dinh district magistrate.

Unlike traditional women who only know how to accept their predestined fate and live within a framework, Mo Yan's characters reveal all their instincts, especially openly expressing their highest sexual behavior. The most reserved, most secret places, considered taboo, are now clearly revealed under Mo Yan's pen. According to the old way, women never dared to ride the wind and waves, but now Dai Phuong Lien, Lu Toan Nhi, Ton Mi Nuong, Lam Lam, Ly Ngoc Thien, ... can reveal all the beauty of their bodies and sexual lives, even when they are sublime or in pain. The passionate moments of sex help them escape from constraints, unhappiness, and from the oppression that is binding them. Moreover, if society has too many prohibitions, it becomes fertile ground for human instincts to rise strongly. Before Mo Yan, traditional literature was very unfamiliar and reacted harshly when Jin Ping Mei (Lan Ling Xiao Xiao Sheng) appeared and was immediately classified as a "pornographic" novel. When coming into contact with the West, a series of works by modern writers explored these profound issues, considering it a means to decode the most complex states of human beings. Therefore, the description of sexuality in Mo Yan's novels was like a fierce attack on the patriarchal ideology in traditional literature. However, on the other hand, the excess and indulgence in sexual life was the source leading to their tragic lives. The illicit relationships thickened in each page, Lam Lam in Red Leaves Green Forest made love like an animal with a duck, committed incest with her father-in-law, Sun Mi Niang ( Sandalwood Image ) was infatuated with the district magistrate of Tien Dinh, wanted to turn into a bitch, Pang Kang Mei ( Living in Depraved Death ) had an illicit relationship with Xi Men Jin.

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Long, Tran Tu Tran ( 41 trivial stories ) had a relationship with old Lan, in Thirteen Departments, there were many lustful relationships between Deputy Director Vuong and Ly Ngoc Thien's mother and daughter, Ly Ngoc Thien and Phuong Phu Quy, Do Tieu Anh and the factory manager,... in these relationships, there was absolutely no love, only instinctive desire. From then on, sex lost its positive, liberal, romantic meaning, only lust remained, making humans equal to animals. Later, writers of the next generation also wrote about sexual life as an instinct for humans to escape loneliness. Diem Lien Khoa was a writer who also described many sexual elements, sex became an indispensable material in writing. In the period of open economy, people took money as a reason to live, as a lifelong goal to strive for, so sex in Diem Lien Khoa's works was used to expose the ugly, mean face of society. Sex as a need for exchange in Four Books , when famine was raging, the beautiful female musician sold her body, her butt up to the ugly and cruel prison guard in area 918 to get a handful of soybeans and a dry bun. In the end, she died tragically: while making love, on the ground was her mouth choking on roasted peanuts deep in her throat, above was her butt up in the air - where red menstrual blood was flowing out... The ultimate tragedy, this was heavier than starvation, they died because they were "eaten" by their own kind!

In short, the female characters above are different from the typical women of feudal society. Mo Yan has combined the seemingly uncombinable things to make them anti-feudal, rebellious characters, and bravely overthrowing the outdated and old-fashioned things of the regime that still haunt and are deeply rooted in the life of the present. Therefore, satire here is like a rebellion against outdated things, and an effective technique to show the failures of "grand narratives".

At the same time, continuing to direct his pen to the collapse of traditional values, Mo Yan creates satirical laughter as a way to reflect on history and perceive the past. In this aspect, we consider the traditional values that have been destroyed through the character of Shangguan Jintong ( Treasure of Life ). The birth of Jintong comes from the desire to have a son to continue the family line. "Bringing the bell to strike a foreign land", Lu Thi gave birth seven times with high expectations but only had daughters. Jintong is the only son thanks to Lu Thi's "asking for seed" with Pastor Maloa. It is not a combination

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simply between male and female but also a combination of two cultures, East and West. With this strange "hybrid", Kim Dong grew up tall, muscular, "blond hair, blue eyes", handsome but could not leave his mother's breast. In the body of an adult, Kim Dong only had an innocent soul, so he became weak and frail. The treasure of the Thuong Quan family was forever just a "big" baby. The child with many expectations was just "an old man sucking on a breast" with the only passion for a woman's breast. When he became an old man, Kim Dong still had to cling to the breasts to revive, and float on them. Kim Dong is a metaphor: born with so much hope but a person who only knows how to cling all his life. If he left the breast, he would feel unstable, completely alone in life because of his "childish" look and strange hobbies. He is always so concerned with the beauty of tradition that he is always skeptical and cannot integrate with real life. Inside the character, there are always conflicts between the past and the present, the bad and the good, ... from there, Mo Yan aims to expose the reality of life full of contradictions, creating bitter laughter before life. Hidden in this image is perhaps the excessive respect for traditional culture or is it the parasitism of a class of people, refusing to let go and grow up? It is from that hybrid (East - West) that it cannot adapt, becoming a "half-hearted" person? Perhaps that is why the writer raises the issue of weaning the spirit of his people to grow up, must overcome the "spiritual victory" to have enough courage to fight, to reach the world. This is also the painful awakening that Lu Xun cried out in the early 20th century: "If the people are still ignorant and cowardly, then no matter how healthy and strong their bodies are, they can only do what people behead and be on display and be people who stand by and watch such a meaningless public spectacle. But if they are sick and have to die, it is not necessarily unfortunate" [169]. Shangguan Jintong has shaken to the very roots the image considered "the treasure of life" to sound the alarm about the problem of "living off"? Also in The Treasure of Life , the church space, the image of Jesus and the Virgin Mary are no longer beautiful, sacred, and majestic, instead it is a dirty place, "full of dust and bird droppings" on Jesus' head, the holy face of the Virgin Mary becomes venomous and short, pastor Maloa - the spokesman of God, violates the sixth and ninth commandments of the New Testament. Sacred place becomes place

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impurity, this is also a type of parody of the Bible, opening up a new layer of meaning in the writer's ideology, when "de-sacred" the sacred, "deep-rooted" concepts! The Bible - "one of the dominant canons of Western culture and literature" [122, p.240], so citing the Bible in literature is no longer too strange. Perhaps borrowing the story of Jesus healing a leper and the teachings of the Lord, Co Vien with the work Orphan Land used the teachings to predict the fate of the character, both instructing and implicitly parodying the teachings in the Bible when creating a contrasting context about the story of the Leper's Grave: "burying the leper alive with those disgusting lepers" [144, p.27] because he did not believe in any theory: "Oh, it must be some rejected witch, so he was jealous and wanted to suppress this land, using a spell he made himself, mainly spreading smoke and scare people and then taking the opportunity to fish in troubled waters" [144, p.11]. With the same satirical tone, in the short story Flow, Oh River, writer Nguyen Huy Thiep also let the character interpret the Bible in a parody way to mock himself: "The fishing profession is the earliest profession.

– He told me. – Saint Simon’s brothers also went fishing. Jesus saw them and said to them: “Follow me, and I will turn you into fishers of men.” The old man took a puff of his tobacco and continued sadly:

- The other day in the district police asked me: “What do you do for a living?” I told them I was a fisherman. They laughed and said: “You catch people!” Damn it! It turns out I’m Saint Simon!” [115, p.11]

Readers also encounter a type of character that Mo Yan uses paradox to mock, which is the writer himself. In the novels " Living in a Fallen Life" and "Jiu Guo", Mo Yan transformed himself into the character Mo Yan and the writer Mo Yan not to explore himself but to create the effect of mixed feelings and perceptions of truth and falsehood, and at the same time to mock himself. It is a form of "I" conscious of "I", Mo Yan did differently from traditional novels - when the author's "self" is like an autobiographical element, attached to it is the biography, the writer's honor is not arbitrarily assigned. With Mo Yan, he did not "pity" his biographical self, giving it the titles "brat", "little demon", ... along with bad habits “Mo Yan's mouth is itchy” [94, p.165], “Once, when Mo Yan climbed up to the window trying to look inside, he got electrocuted and pissed and shit all over his pants…” [17, p.185] in

Living in exile . This is humorous because this type of self-satire of the author reminds of the “language game” in contemporary writing called parody – “a form of refusing all seriousness directly and directly” [122, p.324], readers may remember the painting of Mona Lisa by Leona de Vinci which was painted with a beard by M. Duchamp. Is Duehamp mocking a masterpiece of Vinci or is he serving a new need, a different purpose? This probably depends on the “reading” of the reader when they do not see the text as a closed entity but, like Umberto Eco, a work will always be an open work, inviting endless interpretations. The interesting thing about this type of “character named Mo Yan” is that the writer Mo Yan does not have to recount his biography and personal life for readers to reflect on, but turns himself into a proper character, interacting with other characters in the text. In the Wine Country , Mo Yan is a writer who joins the story to find out the truth about the “child-eating” incident but then “falls” into a trap when he sets foot in the Wine City. The story is like an adventure, a type of story like a detective novel, but the writer does not create the character “writer Mo Yan” in the style of famous detective Conan or Sherlock Holmes, but rather a character who accompanies the character to find out the mysteries. This uniqueness makes the rhythm in the Wine Country sometimes tense, sometimes loose, waiting in suspense to solve the mystery. The two seemingly separate storylines (the storyline about detective Dinh Cau and the storyline about the stories in the narration of Wine Doctor Ly Mot Gao) create interactive twists. The story of Ding Gou investigating the case of “child cannibalism” in the city of Wine has continuously opened up the secrets of this city through the characters of Secretary Khoan Kim Cuong, Director of the mine… interacting with the stories of Doctor Wine when he tells about the “Wine man” Khoan Kim Cuong, Du Mot Thuoc… These two stories are twisted, penetrating each other when the writer character Mo Yan enters the world of Wine. This game is stimulated because it is an intertextual game, and produces many layers of meaning. We can imagine the model of Wine Country , in which there is a continuous reproduction of texts within a text, the twists can be drawn endlessly. Normally, the appearance of the writer-author leads to the work as an autobiography, here, Mo Yan has renewed himself by using real elements from his private life to mock and expose himself.

In the spirit of inheriting and absorbing modern writing techniques, Mo Yan also uses satire and allusions as references to objects to bring hidden streams of discourse that readers must directly connect to discover. That is also a type of language game in Mo Yan's novels.

The allusions used in Mo Yan's novels come from the traditional yet creative storytelling style , Mo Yan leads readers into an attractive and captivating narrative maze. By shifting space and time, intersecting from the real world to the fantasy with interspersed legendary stories, it is possible to create new effects in analyzing the character's psychology in depth. Along with the appearance of the characters, besides the reality of life, there are stories tinged with fantasy. The novels Sandalwood Shape, Treasure of Life , Frog , ... all have legendary stories. We will present this in more detail in the next section. Like the above novels, Thirteen Sets has many fascinating legendary stories such as the stories in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio : The Man Who Can Change His Bones and Flesh, The Female Monkey Waiting for Her Husband on a Deserted Island, The Sparrow Walks Thirteen Steps, The Woman Who Fanned Her Husband's Grave, The Green-Haired Little Monk... appearing at important moments in the lives of teacher Phuong Phu Quy and Do Tieu Anh (teacher Phuong Phu Quy's wife), to lead and reveal the lives of the characters. The use of this story to allude to another story, arousing curiosity and increasing the appeal of the story.

Not only citing the legendary story, real-life stories are also cited in Thirteen Sets to increase authenticity, and at the same time supplement information for what is being said. The yellowed newspaper published Dr. Au Duong Son Ban's article about the transformation of life and death and the men who had undergone surgery, changing hormones to become 100% women, appearing right when Ly Ngoc Thien was preparing to change Phuong Phu Quy's face into Truong Xich Cau to strengthen the character's belief... Mo Ngon used this technique as an opening for important events that took place immediately after. Nguyen Thi Tinh Thy called the effectiveness of this technique "the method of leading". Citing a detail, an image, an event to lead, open the way to explore the ideas of the work in Mo Ngon's novel has called on previous texts. Readers also discovered that in Tam Quoc Dien Nghia , La Quan Trung used this technique as "an omen, a prediction for what is about to happen". In chapter 12, Cao Cao was surrounded by Lu Bu, attacked, and released.

Mo Yan's Novels from Intertextual Theory - 17

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