What Is a Familiar Stranger?

The famous writer Mao Dun said: This kind of character, he is a real person in life, very familiar, there is a shadow of him among our acquaintances, all a little like him; but it is not him. This is probably the most familiar stranger.

a familiar stranger

(Pronunciation of art theory)

The famous writer Mao Dun said: This kind of character, he is a real person in life, very familiar, there is a shadow of him among our acquaintances, all a little like him; but not him. Everyone is a bit like him, but not all like him; you can meet him everywhere, but you can't mistake who he is.

We refer to typical characters as "familiar strangers". This formulation is correct. It profoundly reveals the relationship between the commonness and personality of typical characters from the perspective of their social effects. All typical characters are the unity of a distinct and unique personality with a concentrated, profound commonality.

"Familiar stranger" comes from Belinsky, Belinsky believes: Every typical is a stranger familiar to the reader. Familiarity, because it comes from life, summarizes some phenomena and laws in the real relationship that the reader once felt and realized, so that the reader can associate certain similar characters from this typical image. This is the case if many readers felt that Lu Xun was scolding himself when reading The True Story of Ah Q. Unfamiliar, because people who have such personality characteristics never seem to have, they are new objects, new lives, and entrust the writer's thought-provoking and inspiring aesthetic ideals, so they give people a new aesthetic satisfaction. "Unfamiliar" thus refers to the literary typical has a distinctive, unique and rich personality, with unique psychological activities, behavioral patterns, language characteristics, and so on. The image of Ah Q cannot be seen by readers in life, because it was created by Lu Xun with typical methods, it is fresh and unique, and it is the only original "this" in ancient and modern times.

The artistic charm of literary typical lies in that the literary typical comes from life and is higher than life. It has both personality and commonality. Is a "familiar stranger familiar to readers". Therefore, the typical literature has a more obvious and important aesthetic improvement function based on the general social function.

Familiar strangers have revealed the reason why the typical and unique aesthetic value of literature lies in its originality, because it is the perfect unification of a distinctive personality and a sufficiently strong commonality.

Hegel called "familiar strangers" "typically" this "or" this ".