Gao Xingjian: Aesthetics and Creation By Gao Xingjian

the character, the reader perceives events from the perspective of the character during the process of reading: it will be as if the reader is the character. This is the magic of the second-person pronoun.

The second-person pronoun can also be the external projection of the narrator’s ego; in other words, it can act as adversary when the narrator engages in interior monologue. The second-person pronoun facilitates this sort of interior monologue, which is commonly found in plays and is also appearing as a narrative method in fiction.

The third-person narrating subject he—although not the omnipotent narrator who appears in traditional fiction—can also become the viewpoint of the protagonist, but this involves a hierarchical change in which the subjective narration changes to the third person. This subtle change must have a definite reference; in other words, it requires first that a base be established. If initially the subject I is used as the narrator, when the narration changes to the third-person he, while still referring to the same character, he then becomes the object of focus of I, or becomes the projection of I. So I, as well as he, represents the same character yet can engage in dialogue: he becomes the object that I is considering, and the thoughts of the character do not require the intervention of an omnipotent narrator.

From this it can be seen that once a certain narrative angle has been established, the narrator of the work of fiction, usually the protagonist, can also assume three different designations as the subject—I, you, he—and constitute different levels of narration. Following this, it is found that different levels of narration lead to different psychological levels. Human consciousness is actualised through language, and cognition of the self cannot be divorced from language. It is through the three persons of the subject—three different positions—that the so-called self is confirmed.

By establishing the subject as I, the adversarial projection of I becomes you, and the externalised projection of I becomes he, so the narrative language of fiction introduces three different pronouns to designate the one character and leads to a new and multifaceted understanding of