An Analysis of Love

An Analysis of Love is a collection of literary criticism by critic Yue Wen, divided into three sections and containing more than ten essays. Section One paints a macro picture of the Chinese novel over the first two decades of the twenty-first century: starting from how novels begin and how novelists enter the world, it traces the changing definitions of the good person across different eras, reinterprets feminine consciousness and women's writing, and sketches the world of the new-century novel. Section Two offers close analyses of specific authors and works, focusing on eight writers and their books—Feng Jicai's The Artists, Liang Xiaosheng's A Lifelong Journey, Jin Yucheng's Blossoms, Wang Anyi's The Song of Everlasting Sorrow, Deng Yiguang's Man, or All Soldiers, Alai's Cloud-Making, Feng Liang's The Southwest Frontier, and Ye Zhou's Dunhuang Chronicle—approaching the texts through themes such as double consciousness, the analysis of love, requiem, the moral vision of plebeian China, and the rise of a new local consciousness. Section Three consists of lively short pieces on Dream of the Red Chamber, on the literary genres she favors, and on her own encounter with literature. Moving from the macro to the micro, the book combines an overall grasp of contemporary literary trends with close textual readings, presenting a young critic's candid engagement with literature and her attempt to understand complex life through words.