Mo Yan’s Work and Magic Realism
Mo Yan’s Work and Magic Realism

Summary/Abstract: Mo Yan’s work has been widely considered a Chinese type of magic realism, this label also alluding to the total reshaping that took place in the 1980s in China’sncontemporary literature, due to an unprecedented opening to western culture, especially in the humanities. Nevertheless, labeling always does more harm than good, so the critics, especially in China, are divided into two opposing groups, with views often dismissive of each other, concerning Yan’s style. One group tends to regard the author as living proof of the huge influence of the West, while the other one emphasizes that receiving western influences was just a short spell of madness at the author’s beginnings, and that as he matured, he returned to the Chinese tradition in composition and style. Both positions are exaggerated, and this paper tries to set a few guiding lines concerning the influence of magic realism on Mo Yan’s work and conciliate some of these rather groundless controversies.

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