The Music of rural Life in the novels «Sandro from Chegem» by Fazil Iskander and «The Shaanxi Opera» by Jia Pingwa: harmony of Nature and the Past

Дубаков Л.В., Го С.

doi:10.25136/2409-8698.2025.4.70804

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Litera

Reference:

Dubakov, L., Guo, X. (2025). The Music of rural Life in the novels «Sandro from Chegem» by Fazil Iskander and «The Shaanxi Opera» by Jia Pingwa: harmony of Nature and the Past. Litera, 4, 339–350. . https://doi.org/10.25136/2409-8698.2025.4.70804

The Music of rural Life in the novels «Sandro from Chegem» by Fazil Iskander and «The Shaanxi Opera» by Jia Pingwa: harmony of Nature and the Past

Dubakov Leonid

ORCID: 0000-0003-1172-7435

PhD in Philology

Associate Professor, Faculty of Philology, Shenzhen MSU-BIT University

518172, China, Shenzhen, Guojidaxueyuan str., 1

dubakov_leonid@mail.ru

Other publications by this author

Go Sin'

Graduate student, Faculty of Philology, Shenzhen MSU-BIT University

518172, China, Guangdong region, Shenzhen, Guojidasueyuan str., 1

galina.99@qq.com

Other publications by this author

DOI:

10.25136/2409-8698.2025.4.70804

EDN:

EEUCQJ

Received:

20-05-2024

Published:

04-05-2025

Abstract: The article analyzes the novels of F. A. Iskander "Sandro from Chegem" and Jia Pingwa "The Shaanxi Opera" from the point of view of the presence of musical images associated with specific musical works, performers, genres, directions, etc. Music influences the themes and issues, the images of the main characters, the character system, the plot, the motivational structure of these books. In Fazil Iskander's novels "Sandro from Chegem" and Jia Pingwa's "The Shaanxi Opera", music is what preserves the old, rural culture, provides cultural continuity in an urbanizing and simplifying world. The music of the Qin opera and Abkhazian songs reveal in the novels the rhythm, respectively, of Chinese and Caucasian rural ‒ labor, family, love, and natural existence. The music of Fazil Iskander and Jia Pingwa allows them to characterize the heroes of their works, to create an otherworldly harmonic chronotope. The music in "Sandro from Chegem" and in "The Shaanxi Opera" affects human and natural reality, considering them for themselves as an opportunity to sound in space. Finally, the music in these works can overcome death, carrying the memory of oneself through despair, farewell to the deceased and the transition from life to life. The relevance of the article is determined by the high interest of modern literary criticism in comparing works created in different national cultures, in particular in Russian and Chinese, as well as to the artistic interaction of literature and music. The novelty of the article is due to the previously unseen comparison of the novels of Fazil Iskander and Jia Pingwa in terms of identifying the forms and analyzing the functions of their musical component, as well as from the point of view of their belonging to similar literary phenomena ‒ "village prose", "root-searching literature".

Keywords:

Fazil Iskander, Sandro from Chegem, Jia Pingwa, The Shaanxi Opera, musical images, village prose, root-searching literature, comparative analysis, intermediality, harmony
This article is automatically translated.

The plots of the Qin operas in the novel are parallel to its storylines and sometimes predict their development. Quotations from Qin arias allow the writer to characterize the characters, to show their inner essence. Qin melodies create a special chronotope, connecting not only the past and the present, but also the earthly and the heavenly (similar to the sounding and stretching upward walnut tree in Iskander). Qin opera is able to influence human and animal reality, considering them for themselves as an opportunity to sound in space. Finally, she can overcome death by carrying the memory of herself through despair, saying goodbye to the deceased and moving from life to life.

References

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Peer Review

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Intermediality as a problem and a scientific question in the history of literature is quite common. Researchers determine, first of all, the functions of musical inclusions, analyze the ways of introducing instrumentation into the text. The reviewed article concerns the deciphering of the music of rural life in the novels "Sandro of Chegem" by Fazil Iskander and "Qin Melodies" by Jia Pingwa. The comparative principle, in my opinion, is successful, the productivity of a comparative nature has proven itself quite seriously. The work has a full-fledged appearance, it is informative and informative. The author tries to objectify the essence of the problem as much as possible, to make a holistic analysis of the musical "background" in these texts. The assessment of the novel "Sandro of Chegem" by F. Iskander and "Qin melodies" by Jia Pivn was made objectively, taking into account the available critical developments. For example, F. A. Iskander's novel Sandro of Chegem (1966 ? 1989) was written for a long time and covered several decades of Soviet life in Abkhazia. This book is spoken of as a work that combined "the best, most productive that the neo-Liberals and the Liberal Democrats had." The point is that, without formally referring to "village prose," Fazil Iskander's novel, like her, draws attention to the destructive processes that come into rural life from the side of big history, politics and widespread urbanization," or "Jia Pingwa's novel (Chinese: ??, pinyin ji? P?ngw?) "Qin Melodies" (Chinese: ??, pinyin Qin Qiang) (2005) by its very name refers to the Shaanxi (Qin) opera ? "a regional musical drama that originated in the Ming era on the border of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces", where the Qin kingdom was located in the third century BC. The main "Feature of this drama is the rhythm beaten off by wooden castanets-beaters." Meng Yaoyu writes that it is also characterized by "a simple melody structure, without abrupt changes of registers and interval jumps; popular texts; the predominance of high register; rigor of composition; homophonic presentation, where the soloist's singing is supported by a vocal ensemble using percussion or completely unaccompanied," etc. The text is consistent, the main number of functions of musical works in the specified the novels are registered. Therefore, the goal is achieved systematically, the tasks are solved holistically. The style of work correlates with the scientific type, which is clearly positive: "the music in the novel "Sandro of Chegem" performs a similar set of functions. Iskander's work contains references to world musical culture. So, in the very first chapter of the novel of the same name, the narrator sees something operatic in the figure of Sandro. At the same time, Sandro is "ironically " aware of his operatic nature and at the same time, with an apologetic smile, "nods " at the secret buffoonery of life itself." This characteristic allows the writer to point out one of the features of his hero, in which much resembles a comic actor," or "the music of the Qin opera, its theatrical decisions, costumes, the appearance of the characters and their actions, its rhythm also preserve and broadcast the past into the present: the heroes of the Qin drama may be emperors or ordinary people, but their way of thinking, their behavior resonates with the peasants of Qingfengjie village. So, for example, in the episode when people are waiting for water to their fields and when, in agonizing anticipation, someone sang a fragment about the appearance of the emperor from the opera "To Capture the villain Wang Tong", some peasants found it strange and inappropriate, but a little later Xia Feng passes by them, whom Shu Zheng calls "a big man"what can know about whether there will be water or not. The villagers, talking about everyday things, talk like the heroes of an opera: "it was as if the aria of a fair official sounded in the opera, and in response to her the aria of a positive hero," etc. It is worth noting a special independent option for evaluating texts, successful analysis, and good philological analysis. I will also note the syncretic sense of considering the topic as a positive aspect of the essay. The literary context is also not excluded in the work: "the novel "Qin melodies", like, for example, "Farewell to the Mother" by V. G. Rasputin, captures the unwholesome changes coming to the Chinese countryside: peasants, especially young ones, gradually break away from their land and rush to the city; family ties that were based on Confucian bonds are crumbling; traditional culture in the village is being replaced by mass culture. Bai Xue's husband goes to the city and stays there forever, leaving his family ? father, mother and his wife: "Xia's house, the pulse of Xia's family are in decline," etc. The material is practical in nature, it is appropriate to use it both in the study of Russian and Chinese literature. The basic requirements of the publication have been taken into account, the actual editing is unnecessary. For the logic of transitions, the author uses language clips: in addition, so, we can note separately, etc. The conclusions of the work are constructive, the moment of comparative is not excluded: "the plots of the Qin operas in the novel are parallel to its storylines and sometimes predict their development. Quotes from Qin arias allow the writer to characterize the characters, to show their inner essence. Qin melodies create a special chronotope, linking not only the past and the present, but also the earthly and the heavenly (like the sounding and stretching upward walnut tree of Iskander). Qin opera is able to influence human and animal reality, considering them for itself as an opportunity to sound in space. Finally, she can overcome death by carrying the memory of herself through despair, saying goodbye to the deceased and moving from life to life." With that said, I would like to quote: the article "Music of rural life in the novels "Sandro of Chegem" by Fazil Iskander and "Qin melodies" by Jia Pingwa: harmony of nature and the past" can be allowed to be published in the magazine "Litera" by the publishing house "Nota Bene".

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The Music of rural Life in the novels «Sandro from Chegem» by Fazil Iskander and «The Shaanxi Opera» by Jia Pingwa: harmony of Nature and the Past