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A Discussion With Gao Xingjian
Gao Xingjian was awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature "for an œuvre
of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has
opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama." The following
is an excerpt from his acceptance speech.
Language is not merely concepts and the carrier of concepts, it
simultaneously activates the feelings and the senses and this is why signs and
signals cannot replace the language of living people. The will, motives, tone
and emotions behind what someone says cannot be fully expressed by semantics and
rhetoric alone. The connotations of the language of literature must be voiced,
spoken by living people, to be fully expressed. So as well as serving as a
carrier of thought literature must also appeal to the auditory senses. The human
need for language is not simply for the transmission of meaning, it is at the
same time listening to and affirming a person's existence.
Borrowing from Descartes, it could be said of the writer: I say and therefore I
am. However, the I of the writer can be the writer himself, can be equated to
the narrator, or become the characters of a work. As the narrator-subject can
also be he and you, it is tripartite. The fixing of a key-speaker pronoun is the
starting point for portraying perceptions and from this various narrative
patterns take shape. It is during the process of searching for his own narrative
method that the writer gives concrete form to his perceptions. In my fiction I
use pronouns instead of the usual characters and also use the pronouns I, you,
and he to tell about or to focus on the protagonist. The portrayal of the one
character by using different pronouns creates a sense of distance. As this also
provides actors on the stage with a broader psychological space I have also
introduced the changing of pronouns into my drama.
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