ON THE LANGUAGE OF NETWORK LITERATURE

Bohai University,Jinzhou,China Email:553705012@qq.com

[Abstract]The paper is on the specific features of network literature.The characteristics of postmodernist carnival square culture are analyzed.Among them,the title,contents and language of network literature works are analyzed in detail.

[Keywords]network literature;carnival square culture;postmodernism;language of network literature

Introduction

The definition of network literature is still in a state of disagreement.Different definitions can be divided into three categories.The first category is the broadest definition.The so-called network literature refers to those literary works spread on the Internet,including the traditional literary works that can be spread on the net,so in this definition,the network is used as carrier,which makes the definition too broad.The second category is a meso-definition of network literature:it refers to the original literature on the network which are created by computer and published on the internet.Compared with traditional literature works,there are many changes in the way of creation,the author’s identity and the literary system.The narrow sense of network literature refers to the works of network hypertext link and multimedia production,which have characteristics of the network,and cannot survive without the computer network.Many experts believe that network literature of narrow sense is the real one.(Ouyang,2019,p.3)

The author thinks that the third category of literature is too narrow,and the first too broad.If the poetry of Tang and Song Dynasty become network literature after moving to the network,this definition is too broad.Therefore,the author adopts the meso-definition,including those created by computer and published on the Internet first.

In order to distinguish network literature from traditional one,it is suggested that network literature has three key characteristics different from traditional one:1.Writers of network literature are from internet,most of whom write for amateur purposes,initially for entertainment rather than for profitable business purposes.2.Media of network literature is internet.Works are published and spread by internet.3.Readers of network literature are netizens.Most of the works are created in the process of interactive communication between the writer and netizens.

as a new form of literature,network literature has been deliberately ignored by the traditional literature,and the traditional literature field shows a disdainful attitude towards network literature.Some scholars call network literature“only network,no literature”; others say“network literature is not literature”,“network literature is garbage”.In fact,regardless of whatever attitude to network literature,domestic network literature has gone through two decades since the popular novelthe first intimate contactby Cai Zhiheng published online.During the twenty years,the achievements of network literature are remarkable and cannot be ignored.There have appeared a large number of excellent network literature works,and many of which have published by the publishing company.(Nie,2017,p.3)

Postmodernist Characteristics Of Network Literature

The virtual nature of the media and the freedom of network communication leads to the novelty of the names of literary works and authors.The Internet provides a virtual stage for netizens to fully display their personality,in which everyone is entitled to perform heartily.(Lu,2020,p.2)Without any threshold restrictions,writers can express their own words and works.In addition,on this stage of personality,to attract people’s attention,one must seek innovation,novelty and change.The pursuit of individuality and novelty leads to the novelty of the names of writers and works.

From the names of the writers,most of which are obviously different from the pseudonyms of the authors in daily literature,such asold pig,drinker,mushroom.Old pig and drinkerappeared in the form of self-deprecation,which reflected the characteristics of entertaining in network literature; names likemushroom,big explosionshowed the pursuit of freedom,random and unrestraint in network literature;names likemore vulgar,prickly bloodshowed the social color of network literature,which was a kind of carnival plaza culture.

Regardless of the contents of network literature,the names of the writers clearly reflect the postmodernism characteristics of network literature.Postmodernism is the inevitable product of western social economy and cultural development,and also the result of the contradiction between social structure and cultural structure.In short,postmodernism is a trend of thought from modernism and against modernism,criticizing and reflecting the cultural trend formed in western society,philosophy,science and technology.The post-modernist trend of thought is manifested in all aspects of society and fields,especially in literature.

Compared with the characteristics of postmodernist culture,the names of the network literary writers listed above show the vulgar culture of civilian culture and popular culture,and show the attitude of treating literary works as recreation and ridicule,which brings entertainment and relaxation.

A Kind of Carnival Plaza Culture

The so-called plaza culture refers to the culture embodied in the activities of literature and art,speech,science popularization,medical treatment,sports and celebration carried out on the plaza.The most prominent feature of plaza culture is diversity.On plaza,people spontaneously carry out various kinds of activities according to different hobbies and needs,including sports,artistic performance,elegant culture and mass entertainment.People amuse themselves in the plaza culture.Network literature is the expression of this kind of plaza culture on the internet.

Bakhtin,a former Soviet writer,put forward the carnival theory.At present,carnival culture is in more and more hot research.According to Bakhtin’s theory,Carnival has the following characteristics:

First,Carnival has no threshold and anyone can participate in it.Carnival is generally in public places such as plazas suitable for all people to participate in; second,in Carnival,all beings are equal,and equality and freedom is the relationship between people in Carnival mode;third,the main pursuit of Carnival is happiness,promotion and renewal,which are against solidification and inflexibility; Fourth,novelty and grotesque are the main characteristics of Carnival,showing a diversified form.(Bakhtin,1988,p.178)

Network literature is a good proof of Bakhtin's carnival theory.From titles of works,characteristics of lexicon,phonetics,syntax,structure,punctuation,emotion of the network literature works,the spirit of carnival plaza culture is shown clearly.The following will be the analysis of carnival plaza cultural characteristics of network literature.

Title of Network Literature Works

Network literature is different from daily literature,the title of which must be innovative and attractive in order to increase the click rate and the popularity of the work.Just take some titles of a few famous novel websites as examples:Marry the king four times;Pick up a handsome boyfriend;Do not annoy me;Temptation of the president,etc.

Regardless of the contents of these online novels,we will analyze the titles.To sum up,the main features of the titles are as follows:1.Vulgarization:the vulgar words such as changing husband,hooliganism,one-night love,and so on,reflect the shift of elite literature to grassroots literature.On the network stage,literature no longer belongs to those few elites,but is shared by the public.This turn in the direction of literary creation leads to the vulgarization of the choice of words,catering to the majority of people's love of vulgar culture.2.Randomization:the non-professionalization of network creation and the particularity of network writing make the network literature colloquial and random.3.Personalization:on Internet,everyone pursues difference and innovation.That is why many new words and phrased are coined and spread on the internet.4.Eroticism:in order to attract readers,eroticism is a popular strategy to hold readers’attention,for example,words likethe old prostitute,the lure of love,mommy's lovercater to a large number of people's interest in erotic works.5.Diversification:means of expression in network literature are diversified,such as puns,numbers,signs,acronym,etc.

Contents of Network Literature Works

We just focus on the differences between network literature and traditional ones.Among network novels,romance,traversing and fantasy novels occupy very large portion.Take romance as an example,the commonality in the content of network romances is that all love stories end with a positive outcome.

as for the social and psychological reasons for the popularity of this theme,they may be the following:1)Love in modern society is fragile and people need a spiritual sustenance to believe that love still exists.Just as Bible is a belief--love is also a belief.These beautiful pure love novels tell the world that love exists.2)The pressure of modern social life is large.Readers do not expect the immortal literature works，but just searching for relaxation and entertainment.This is also the main reason for the popularity of some film and television works with pure entertainment purpose in recent years.3)There is a turn from elite literature to civilian literature,which leads to the simplicity of the thought and content of the novel.Network literature is a stage for the general public and most of the writers are not professional,so the simple and popular language in the network novel is an inevitable result.

Language of Network Literature Works

Network literature as a new form of literature,because of its open characteristics,that is,everyone can participate,is the stage of public participation.It is because of the low threshold of network literature participation that literary language presents different characteristics from traditional literature.The obvious features include vulgarization of language,diversification of language composition,randomization of language expression and colloquialism.

Vulgarization

It is obvious to find the outstanding difference of language between network literature and traditional one.The low threshold of participation is one of the main reasons for the vulgarization of its language.Another reason is that because of the high pressure of modern social life,emotions need to be vented to relax and decompress.In this way,the anonymous stage of network makes it possible to freely express emotions at will.

as to the vulgar phenomenon of network literature language,there are three main kinds of opinions.Among them,some people hope that network literature should be refined,and gradually develop to a healthy direction;some people think that network literature as a new way of literature,can be critically absorbed.Readers should appreciate its meaningful aspects.The third view is that vulgarity is also a form of literary.

Generally speaking,whether appreciating or criticizing,network literature,as an objective existence in the network age,cannot change its development direction according to the will of some people.There is a reason to believe that the universal evolutionary principle of survival is also applicable to the development of network literature,so we will wait and see the development direction of network literature.

Randomization

The characteristics of popular participation in network literature is also the main reason for its randomization of language.

The characteristics of randomization can be seen in lexicon.For example:(1)English words are used directly,likebabyface,happy,call,see you then,partyand so on;(2)Chinese Pinyin and English alphabet homonyms are used directly,like“I will K u.”The reason may probably be the pursuit of speed and the principle of labor saving in network creation.(3).Numbers and mathematical symbols enter the language of network literature:for example,5555 is a digital homophonic,used to replace the onomatopoeia "whining ",describing the sound of crying,which is quite simple,convenient and novel;(4)Onomatopoeia is rich in use,such as“hehe,um,cut,roar,wow”are used to describe laughter,response,dismissive sound,exclamation sound and so on.5)Dialect words come into the network literature language:many regional dialects are used in order to be funny and cordial.(Zhang,2007,p.53)

The characteristics of randomization of language use can also be seen in the aspect of syntax.Some special and new sentence structures are used,just for the identity of new human community.Randomization of language is also showed by the use of punctuation.It can be said that punctuation can be used at will be the writer,for example,several punctuation marks are used simultaneously to accentuate the mood.

Conclusion

To sum up,from the aspect of author's name,title and contents of works,language characteristic,it can be seen that the network literature is a kind of carnival plaza culture and civilian culture,which is typically different from the traditional literature creation.