The “Experimental” Notion and the “Avant-garde” Gesture: From “the Experimental Novel” to “Modernism”

Abstract

Abstract: The “experimental” literary notion and the “scientific” literary doctrine of Emile Zola have expanded the range of description of man by applying the new discovery of “Man” by natural sciences to literary creation. On the other hand, they have formed a new “experimental” literary notion by absorbing the spirit of skepticism and freedom from scientific notions which meets the essential requirements of literature. The key of the “experimental” notion in “The Experimental Novel” is to overturn tradition and keep creative. In terms of the “anti-traditional” standing point and the avant-garde gesture initiated by the “experimental” notion, Naturalism and Modernism are quite similar. The “experimental” spirit and methodology of Modernism were directly originated from the “novel experiment” upheld by Naturalism. “The experimentalism” caused unprecedented creative wonder while its “anti-traditional” avant-garde gesture never meant “disruption” from literary traditions.

Key words: Naturalism, the Experimental Novel, experimentalism, anti-tradition, modernism

Jiang Chengyong, Zeng Fanting. The “Experimental” Notion and the “Avant-garde” Gesture: From “the Experimental Novel” to “Modernism”[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2018, 40(1): 61-77.

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