The technique of intertextuality in Dong Xi's novel "Echo"
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The article examines the methods of implementing detective strategy in the novel "Echo" by the modern Chinese writer Dong Xi. Special attention is paid to the peculiarities of the narrative defined by two storylines, as well as the use of intertextuality techniques that convey the characters' deep immersion in the world of Chinese and world literature. Subject of the study: methods of implementing detective strategy in the novel "Echo" by the modern Hong Kong writer Dong Xi. The purpose of the work is to identify the specifics of using detective strategy as a narrative tool to uncover key aesthetic and moral issues in the novel, as well as to substantiate its belonging to the metamodern paradigm. Methodology: the study uses an integrated approach, including: narrative analysis (the structure of the double plot, narrative techniques), intertextual analysis (identification and interpretation of references to Chinese and world literature), aesthetic and ethical analysis of the novel's problems, a comparative typological method for determining the novel's place in the context of metamodernism. It is established that the detective strategy (search, mystery, investigation) organizes the plot movement along two lines (the line of the heroine Agnes and the line of the novel she is reading), creating the effect of an "investigation" of identity and meaning. It is shown that intertextuality serves not only as a cultural background, but also as a key tool for implementing detective intrigue (searching for literary "keys", deciphering meanings). The central problems are identified: aesthetic – the substitution of authentic life and relationships with art and text; ethical – manifestations of mild parental violence and restriction of children's freedom of choice in family relationships. The author substantiates the novel's belonging to metamodernism: a combination of postmodern techniques (intertextual play, self-reflection, doubt in "reality") with a sincere appeal to serious moral dilemmas and the search for authenticity is revealed. The results of the research can be used in literary criticism in the analysis of modern Chinese (Hong Kong) prose; in the study of narratology, the specifics of the detective genre in "nodetective" texts, as well as in the research of intertextuality and metamodern aesthetics and in the practice of teaching modern foreign literature.
Source: Филология научные исследования
Institution: Chinese Culture University
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4413305588