饥饿是一段苦难的历史，一个年代的记忆标识。它也是一个人的经历，一个民族的集体记忆，一种文化载体。饥饿包含丰富的社会历史、文化意义，它需要在新的角度被认识与理解。 我国历史上有“连绵不绝”的饥荒，又有发生于上世纪五十年代末六十年代初的三年大饥荒，它们反映的是中国人民极度悲惨的受难史。中国人民的饥荒记忆显得深刻而历久弥新。三年大饥荒时的饥饿经历可能成为作家们创作的直接素材来源，而历史上的灾荒又在民众心中投下了饥饿集体无意识的阴影。作家们钟情于自己的体验，抒写难以忘却的饥饿记忆，这也是出于一种对历史记忆的承续愿望。二者相辅相成，在新时期形成一种别致的“饥饿文学”景象。“饥饿文学”不是一个文学流派，也不是某一时代的创作潮流，它只是一种创作倾向，是一部分文学作品的总体称呼，表达了对饥荒苦难的纪念。 新时期的“饥饿文学”大致可以分为两个发展阶段。八十年代的“饥饿文学”作品以中短篇为主，也都以讲述一段关于饥饿的故事为主要内容，表达了一个与“吃”直接相关的主题，表现了饥荒年代残酷的现实。九十年代至今的“饥饿文学”作品以长篇为主，在内容上显得更深厚、宽广，展现了一段具有丰富内容的历史。它们讲述“活着”的故事，展现了生存苦难，塑造了一组“母性”形象，体现了浓重的历史感。 莫言是一个特别倾情于饥饿的作家。他对饥饿记忆的表现具有典型意义。从小就对饥饿感受深刻的莫言在他的作品中表现出了饥饿可能具有的深刻内涵。他懂得调动自己的一切经验来成就自己的小说，表现童年时期的饥饿与孤独感受，建构自己的文学世界。同时，他还发出了对文化的追问。《酒国》对吃与喝的极端描绘正是作者试图从文化方面挖掘国人的饥民性之根的表现。 “饥饿文学”体现的是作家对表现民族苦难所作出的努力。从对苦难历史应表现出的敬畏与尊重及延续社会记忆的需要来看，“饥饿文学”还显得很薄弱。

The history of hunger is a long period of suffering, which marked an era in human memory. Hunger is a kind of human experience, as well as a type of nation’s collective memory, embodied in culture. It contains the wealth of social history and the cultural significance. It needs being understood in a new point of view.The ‘endless’ famine in China, and the three years of the famine occurred from the late 1950s to early 1960s, extremely reflect the tragic suffering history of Chinese people. Chinese people's memory of the famine is profound and coexistence. The experience of hunger in the three years of famine may become the writers’ direct material source. And the history of the famine casts a shadow of the collective unconscious over people’s hearts. Writers are deeply in love with their hunger experience, willing to perform this unforgettable memory. That is out of a desire of continuation of historical memory. The two which are mutually complementary, form the chic ‘hunger literary’ scene in new era. ‘Hunger Literature’ is neither a literary school, nor is a tide of the times. It is a literature trend, and an overall title of part of literature papers, expressing the suffering of the famine memorial.‘Hunger literature’ in new era can be roughly divided into two stages. In 1980’s, the works, mainly short, told stories of hunger as the main content, expressed a directly related theme of ‘food’, and displayed the famine's cruel reality. Since the 1990s, the works, mainly long, were more profound and broader in displaying historical content. They talked about the ‘live’ stories, showed the suffering of survival, created a group of ‘motherhood’ images, and reflected the strong sense of history.Mo Yan is a special writer in favor of hunger, whose performance of hunger memory is typical. Mo Yan who has deep feelings of hunger since childhood, demonstrated profound meaning of hunger. He knows how to mobilize all the experience to his stories, performs the feeling of hunger and loneliness of childhood, and constructs the literary world of himself. Meanwhile, he also issues a culture of questioning. ‘Liquor Kingdom’ depicts the extreme of eating and drinking. It is the author’s intent to try to tap the cultural aspects of the root of hungry people. ‘Hunger literature’ reflects the national writers’ efforts in the performance of suffering. From the reverence and respect for the renewal of society to the suffering of history and the demand for memory, ‘Hunger literature’ is very weak.