Historical Material as a Basis for Fictional Narrative in Mo Yan's Novel “Frog”

In recent years, literary works from China have increasingly attracted the attention of researchers both in Russia and abroad. After the Chinese writer Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize in Literature, his novels were translated into many languages, which allowed readers from different countries to get acquainted with the history, culture and traditions of China. The purpose of this study is to conduct a detailed analysis of the historical material in Mo Yan's novel "Frog" to identify its role in shaping the plot of the work. Mo Yan's personal experience is often reflected in his works, so sources such as an autobiography published on the Nobel Prize website, as well as several interviews with Mo Yan for Chinese television programs, were used to study the writer's biography. The works of Russian and foreign researchers were analyzed for the theoretical basis of scientific work. For example, the book by Chinese writer Cheng Xiaoming "Trends in modern Chinese literature", which describes the processes of formation and development of genres and trends of Chinese literature of the late twentieth century. The results of the study showed that, firstly, Mo Yan's personal experience has a significant impact on his works, and secondly, the writer's literary works (including the novel "Frog") belong to avant-garde prose and "root-seeking literature". In this context, the novel "Frog" can be seen as Mo Yan's critical understanding of the past and present through a fiction narrative. Keywords: Mo Yan, the novel "Frog", modern literature of China, the latest literature of China, avant-garde prose, postmodernism, roots-seeking literature