抒情小說的創作在1980年代的中國文學界蔚為大觀，遲子建是其中的代表性作家。她的小說文體呈現出強烈的散文化風格，注重主體情感的抒發，專注於對日常生活的書寫。她認為小說就是日常化的生活，要從日常生活中挖掘詩意和溫情，以此對抗和消解其中的悲苦。在當時的眾多抒情小說中，使遲子建獨具風格的是她筆下具有神性的自然和極地生活，此處的自然是自有其呼吸和生命、充滿靈性、自為的、甚至超驗的所在，她嚮往的是「天人合一」的境界，這使其超越了人類中心主義，體現出生態思想的核心精神——生態整體主義。

The surge of lyrical fictions was a typical literary phenomenon in the 1980s, and Chi Zi-Jian was one of the representative writers. Her fictions show a strong prose style, pay attention to the expression of the subject’s emotions and focus on the writing of daily life. In her opinion, fictions are all about everyday life. She discovers poetic quality and warmth in daily life to dissolve the misery. Among all the lyrical fictions in the 1980s, the most distinguished characteristic in Chi Zi-Jian’s fictions is the representation of divine nature and life in polar region. The nature there is not just the background of life. To the contrary, it has its own spiritual, productive, and even transcendent life. In her writing, Chi pursues the harmony between nature and humanity. This results in the transcendence of anthropocentrism, which reflects the core spirit of ecological thoughts-ecological holism.