Elements of Modernism and the Grotesque in Yan Lianke’s Early Fiction

This chapter aims to detect early signs of modernism and the grotesque in Yan Lianke 阎连科’s fiction from the 1990s, which is usually placed in the category of post-Maoist realism and, as a genre, is recognised as part of the xiangtu xiaoshuo 乡土小说 (fiction of the native soil). Most of the studies devoted to Yan’s works focus on his latest novels, where his theory of shenshizhuyi 神实主义 (spiritual realism or mythorealism) finds full expression. Indeed, to analyse his early works can be of great interest in order to reconstruct the genesis of his peculiar style and vision of fiction. In particular, this chapter focuses on the novella Gold Cave (Huangjin dong 黄金洞, 1995), which openly challenges the assumptions of traditional xiangtu xiaoshuo with which Yan’s early fiction has been initially identified, and presents clear hints of a new aesthetics, based on modernist techniques and strategies of bewilderment aimed at transcend reality in order to better express it.