The Irony of Exaggerated Language in Zhang Tianyi’s Novels from Mr Warwick

Abstract

In the process of the development of modern Chinese literature, satire has gradually become an important literary form in the modern literary world under Lu Xun’s physical force and active advocacy. After Lu Xun, a large number of writers with strong satirical style emerged successively, of which Zhang Tianyi is a typical representative. Zhang Tianyi successively created a number of satirical literary works and formed his unique creative style. Different from Lu Xun’s traditional dark satirical writing style, as well as the satirical techniques of writers such as Lao She, Qian Zhongshu and Shading, Zhang Tianyi’s satirical style is more sharp and spicy, and he mostly uses a kind of exaggerated irony. This kind of irony is not only shown in the characters and plots he portrayed, but also in the language and words. Mr Warwick, as a representative work of Zhang Tianyi, uses irony to portray a typical image of a reactionary bureaucratic party clerk of the Kuomintang, exposing all the ugliness of the Kuomintang’s reactionary bureaucrats and dignitaries in their passive resistance to the war. Mr Hua Wei has become a typical image of satirical works in the history of modern Chinese literature. This paper takes Zhang Tianyi’s Mr Huawei as a sample, and studies and analyses the language style of Zhang Tianyi’s works, especially the satirical language style, in depth and specifically.