Fenshui Guanyin
1949 New China was founded, and the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles was also established around this period, which opened the prelude to another unified situation in the literary world, while the May 4th new cultural traditions such as democracy, freedom, personalized creation and independent thinking gradually entered a submerged period under the strong control of the regime. The traditional diving in the May 4th Movement was not accidental. With the establishment of a self-proclaimed proletarian regime, this poor and white country cannot support the depth of exploration reached by the pioneers of the May Fourth Movement, and at the same time, the social "advanced class" with workers and peasants as the main body cannot consume this huge spiritual wealth. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, we could neither ignore the tradition of the May 4th New Culture nor give up the propaganda and occupation of the mass spirit, so the concept of left-wing literature was fully implemented with the help of the expansion of political power. Among them, the most typical is the "realistic" creative attitude and technique. Zhou Yang gave it a new name: "socialist realism", which is different from the "old" realism of western Europe and Russia in the19th century, that is, literature should reflect the prospect of real revolution "from the historical development of revolution" and pay attention to the education of the people. It can be seen that the two major tasks of realism are to reflect the reality of the revolution and educate the public. The practical function of literature is placed above the pursuit of art, Ding Ling said: "I also admit that these works focusing on working people and writing today's new figures are not very mature. The author has not described his favorite new characters in detail in classical literature, and there is no Balzac or Tolstoy here. " To some extent, the so-called "realism" is the inevitable result of the "non-elitism" of the May 4th literary tradition. For the sake of pragmatism, the regime rejected this high-level spiritual exploration and elite enlightenment. Although elite exploration is actually a deeper enlightenment and promotion, some people say that the regime itself can't bear such a height and depth, and they don't want to let the public focus too much on the inner and ultimate spiritual field, but hope to focus on real life and the regime itself, so as to achieve the purpose of external conquest such as political rule and economic construction as soon as possible. As for the poor artistic level of the works, Ding Ling added: "But I think this is inevitable. Because everything is new, when literary and art workers are more familiar with and master these new contents and forms, they will gradually satisfy people. I hope readers don't emphasize this shortcoming, because emphasizing will only increase your prejudice and deepen your distance from new things and new literature and art, so let us not miss the past. "
However, the practice is not satisfactory, and there are deviations between theoretical guidance and actual implementation. Its integration lies in criticizing popular literature. Realistic creation is the result of "non-elitism", that is, there is a demand and trend of "popularization" According to the class division at that time, the petty bourgeoisie was defined as a backward class that needed the transformation of workers and peasants. Criticism of popular literature is mainly based on the fact that the readers it serves are ordinary citizens. However, compared with Europe, due to the underdevelopment of industry and commerce and cities in China, the "ordinary citizen" as a class has never been strong enough to influence the political situation, and the workers and peasants who have mastered culture can easily agree with the ordinary citizen in their aesthetic taste orientation. It is a paradox between the literary policy under the control of political power and the actual situation to deny ordinary citizens, popular literature and then civilians. In this way, a group of works with low artistic level can't attract young intellectuals, but they are too lofty and too little in front of workers, peasants and soldiers, and they are completely reduced to preaching. Although this point has been gradually restored in practice, a number of works, such as Flying Tigers and Lin Yuan, which draw lessons from popular literature in artistic form and structure, have pioneering significance, but also make the criticism of popular literature vague and unreasonable.
The second is reflected in the ranks of writers. It can be said that in the 1940s of the development of new literature, the tendency of internalization and sadness was very obvious, and some even entered the ivory tower. Exquisite, beautiful and sad aesthetic style is easy to make people feel bored. At this time, literature and art in the liberated areas appeared with the fragrance of earth, liberating those writers. They are attracted by this energetic, simple and somewhat rude style. At the same time, the government attaches great importance to literature and art, so that the ancient tradition of "being an official by writing" can be carried forward in the liberated areas, and literati and politics have achieved "harmonious coexistence" here. So a large number of writers devoted themselves to the literary camp in the liberated areas, from metaphysical thinking in heaven to human beings, from inner monologues to singing on the land. This can observe the aesthetic significance of realism from another angle. But once the political constraints are too tight, the aesthetic appeal of realism will decline, and the creation of these writers will lose their luster, or withdraw from the mainstream, or the artistic level will be greatly reduced.
In short, under the influence of these factors, the vitality of realism has been greatly weakened, and it has not only failed to maintain its original intention, but even gone to the opposite side of reality-whitewashing, exaggerating and distorting reality, which really requires the injection of fresh blood.
Second, revolutionary romanticism.
Realism and romanticism are a proposition similar to "Confucianism and Taoism complement each other" in a sense. Romanticism is closer to the artistic pursuit of literature and pays more attention to the inner things. However, its beauty lies in its "revolutionary" at the same time, which means that this inner feeling is open, not closed. This extremely adapted to the needs of political propaganda and peaceful whitewashing at that time. It doesn't need to think too much, but it is just a sublimation on the basis of "light", just like a mushroom cloud, which doesn't need too many raw materials, but it has a powerful force. This power is explicit and never leads to deep thinking. But at the same time, the door is locked in front of the heart, which is precious and supplements the rich connotation that realism lacks. "Our era is full of romantic spirit, and our creation also needs wonderful and boundless fantasy." The combination of the two has reached a higher artistic level, and both the author and the reader have generated great passion. Realism, which lacks passion, is at best a literal expression of concepts and a rigid political sermon. However, with the support of romantic and passionate giant hands, realism is full and clumsy. It seems that because of this passion, everything immediately becomes real, touching and dazzling. The ugly duckling turned into a white swan! At the same time, neither the good faith nor the spiritual character of the protagonist seems to have been lost or even destroyed in the works. Heroes can always defeat their enemies with lofty beliefs, which makes the literary tone of the whole seventeen years comic, even if it is the catharsis of passion. These works only provide readers with some spiritual support and emotional sustenance, but lack the power of real reflection and the ultimate purification effect of tragedy-but this is unnecessary for it, which is not its purpose. From this, the aesthetic style of seventeen-year literature is derived: unrestrained, majestic, vigorous and enthusiastic. It can be seen that this is based on absolute confidence in reality, and it also provides a more successful passionate inventory for the continuous political movement.
In the process of combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism, we can see the deep combination of "plot" and "religion" in literature. The plot reflects the reality, and the propaganda policy in the secular sense attracts readers; "Religionization" has the ultimate goal, and the plot is its support, which makes the plot itself a transcendental and unquestionable existence. The plot cannot be considered in the shadow of religion, and there are only two choices: "believe" and "don't believe". Accordingly, the reader paid a solemn and excited similar to the religious experience. The most typical example of this combination is political lyric poetry. Those descriptions and eulogies of reality are touching to read, and both readers and authors show their conversion and enter the ideal holy land together.
Nevertheless, it cannot change the fact that "two combination" is not a panacea in such a strict literary environment. Those comic passions eventually turned into an illusion. The ecstasy without deep motivation can only lead to ignorance and hypocrisy, and gradually this joy can no longer attract people. Perhaps the price is too high, and the fatigue and lack of rationality it brings to the national psychology can not be recovered in a short time. The "religiousization" of the plot has produced the evil consequences of superstition, and the extreme lack and sensitivity of thinking have led to the difference between artistic fiction and real life. Because according to its logic, the truth of the plot is beyond doubt, and the religious feelings above must be the author's own real thoughts. From this perspective, it is not difficult to understand the criticism caused by the film Wu Xunchuan in 1950s and the wave of the Cultural Revolution caused by the film Harry Potter later. The appearance of "two combination" reflected the dilemma of literature at that time: it was necessary to cater to politics and maintain relative independence. This is the expression of literary distortion. Once there is a relaxed environment, the traditional diving in the May 4th Movement will be easy.
Will show his head to find a successor.
Three mistakes and rebirth
The two major themes of new literature: thinking about the modernity of China in the future and impressional dependence on the "homeland" of ancient China, or differences in class struggle concepts or aesthetic styles, were broken in the mainstream of literature in the seventeen years. Few people have reflected on the existence itself beyond the category of Marxism-Leninism, or have sung melancholy songs about faraway hometown.
There are practical reasons for this. In the period of large-scale social construction, construction has replaced thinking and nostalgia. The deeper reason is that neither the regime nor the workers and peasants are familiar with the proposition of "modernity". In their concept, it is closely linked with city, capital, money and temptation, and it is full of uncontrollable evil. Therefore, since it is impossible to grasp, it is better to simply eliminate it. At the same time, the unified situation after liberation has worn away the long-distance observation of "home" and lost the sense of destiny of the home country displaced in the war years. Therefore, in these senses, the two major themes of new literature have been broken by the times and politics. The reconstruction of the two is the inevitable result. Because thinking about the past and the future is an inevitable activity of a nation, however, due to different reasons for the fracture, the time for reconstruction is also different.
Thinking about modernity didn't really appear until the post-misty poetry movement. In other words, only when the reform is carried out to a certain extent, the economic strength and education level reach a certain height, can the issue of modernity be discussed and the concept of "city" begin to recover. Of course, due to the economic and cultural differences, China's modernity thinking is far from reaching the depth of western research on this issue, and this kind of thinking is even more naive because it excludes seventeen years of literature and ten years of Cultural Revolution. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that the shallowness and lack of vitality of industrial themes and urban themes in the seventeen-year literature is precisely because of the lack of modern concepts, and at the same time this concept has been artificially eliminated under political manipulation.
Comparatively speaking, the fracture of the impression of "homeland" is a fracture of aesthetic style, because it goes against the vigorous "spirit of the times" and is abandoned. For example, Zhou Libo's People Beyond the Mountain has become a controversial work. However, on another level, the concept of "home" has been continued, thus coming down in one continuous line with the May 4th literature, showing two major themes in the seventeen-year literature: revolutionary historical novels and rural novels.
Revolutionary historical novels are the product of the legalization of political power. In addition to the needs of the regime itself, they also show the people's uncertainty about the future, including the author, and the resulting dependence on the "party." Therefore, the "Party" must be reshaped and become a historical necessity with unchangeable justice and legitimacy. Therefore, this process of proving where you come from is similar to a process of "seeking roots", and the firm belief and dependence on this shaped history has an emotional color of "home". For example, Red Rock always instills in readers the inevitable connection between "Party" and "Light". This point is even more profound for mainstream writers in the liberated areas. It is the source of wisdom, glory, passion and creation given to them by the revolutionary historical era. Memories after liberation are a process of seeking self-affirmation by looking back at one's homeland. Many writers, such as Guo Xiaochuan and Sun Li, have nostalgia for the war years, which gives them a spiritual comfort.
Rural novels, on the other hand, originate from a kind of attachment and familiarity with the land, which is a direct continuation of the "rural nature" of the May 4th literature. The difference here is that there is no writer's thinking or even skills, but mainly a direct description of "home" (or "root"). I have a deep understanding of everything, and there is no doubt that this is talking about family ties. All languages, rhetoric, logic and emotions are familiar. The "thick gap" between Lu Xun and his hometown, which was sadly mentioned in those years, was easily eliminated by the strong feelings for "home", which absolutely replaced criticism and conflict harmony. But it should be noted that if this can solve the problem, it would be a big mistake. The advantages of rural novels in political propaganda have been strengthened to the extreme and become a tool to keep pace with politics. "How to describe rural themes and reflect rural problems is a major responsibility of writers. Because of the problems in the countryside, it has also caused new problems in creation. 1960, 196 1 year, the problems of the commune have become clear and written more. I wrote less this year and the situation is not very accurate. " From this point of view, this rebirth of the May 4th tradition is only an extremely superficial continuation due to the limitations of reality. Here, the right of intellectuals to think independently is abandoned, making literature a vassal of politics. And thinking is just indispensable for the development of civilization.