THE AWAKENING OF LANGUAGE IN GAO XINGJIAN’S NOVEL SOUL MOUNTAIN

Abstract

The work of Nobel Prize winner Gao Xingjian is not usually considered part of the Chinese avant-garde movement of the 1980s. This study identifies some of the possible reasons for this exclusion and attempts to revise or supplement the reception of his novel “Soul Mountain” by analyzing it in the context of avantgarde theory and by highlighting three of its main characteristics, which show significant overlap with the works of other Chinese avant-garde writers: the search for a new language, the achievement of a new subjectivity, and the construction of a new conception of reality.