Contemporary Rewriting of the Legend of the White Snake: A Narratological Study of Geling Yan's White Snake

Abstract

The Legend of the White Snake is one of the Four Great Folk Legends of China. Owing to its extensive translation and dissemination and diverse narrative forms, it has achieved widespread circulation in the English-speaking world. Geling Yan’s White Snake is a paradigmatic example of contemporary cross-cultural rewriting. Drawing on the imagery of the ancient Legend of the White Snake, the novella tells a lesbian love story set during the Cultural Revolution. Based on structuralist narratology, this study argues that Geling Yan’s rewriting enables an Eastern story to achieve effective circulation in Western contexts through the contemporary reconstruction of its cultural core and the cross-cultural adaptation of narrative strategies. The study confirms that the Legend of the White Snake is characterized by a narrative pattern driven by fate and ethical imperatives, in which characters function primarily as narrative roles and the narrative adopts an omniscient point of view. Conversely, in Geling Yan’s White Snake, individual desire becomes the primary driving force behind plot development, characters emerge as psychologically complex subjects, and the narrative shifts to a limited point of view. As the narrative gradually discloses tensions between the two works in terms of emotion and social rules, it reflects the texts’ profound engagement with human nature and tabooed feelings.