Proposed the concept of "20th century Chinese literature"
Qian Liqun, together with Huang Ziping and Chen Pingyuan, proposed the concept of "20th century Chinese literature" in 1985, emphasizing that The new concept is put forward "not just to open up the current research pattern of 'modern literature', 'modern literature' and 'contemporary literature', nor just to expand the research field, but to open up the existing research pattern of 'modern literature', 'modern literature' and 'contemporary literature'. "Chinese literature should be grasped as an indivisible organic whole." Therefore, "the concept of '20th century Chinese literature' first means that literary history is independent from simple comparisons of social and political history, and it means that the stage of linguistic development itself Integrity as the primary object of study”. In the article "On "Chinese Literature in the 20th Century" written by *** Tong, he also writes from "Chinese literature moving towards 'world literature'; literature with the general theme of 'transforming the soul of the nation'; literature with 'sadness' as the basic core "The modern aesthetic characteristics; the modernization process of artistic thinking expressed by the literary language structure." These aspects summarized the proposal of the concept of "20th Century Chinese Literature", which aroused strong repercussions in the academic world. From the 1980s to the 1990s, it has been the People are concerned about academic propositions, and various opinions have been put forward during the discussion, but this concept is generally accepted and has spread to other disciplines. This concept has also aroused strong interest in the academic circles in Japan, South Korea and other countries, and has generated a certain amount of interest. Influence.
Writing the literary history monograph "30 Years of Modern Chinese Literature"
Qian Liqun collaborated with Wu Fuhui, Wen Rumin, Wang Chaobing and others to write the literary history monograph "30 Years of Modern Chinese Literature" ", and in his long preface, he attempts to use the concept of "20th century Chinese literature" to summarize the whole book. This is a textbook-style literary history that extensively absorbs the latest results of academic research and has many authors. With his own unique discoveries and insights, both the first edition and the revised edition show the level reached by the discipline in the 1980s and 1990s, providing strictly selected new knowledge and new craft information; while paying full attention to science and accuracy, and Literary history textbooks should have stability and acceptability. Therefore, after the book was published, it was welcomed by teachers, students and literature lovers in colleges and universities. In 1997, the State Education Commission selected it as a textbook for university modern literature history courses. This further expanded the influence of this book. In his chapters on the development of "poetry" and "drama", Qian Liqun consciously experimented with writing "history of style" and highlighted the development trajectory of style. The characteristics of the style itself: He tried to show the development process of new poetry through "the changes in poetic artistic thinking and language (continuity, interruption, discontinuity, etc.)", taking "the mutual growth and decline, ups and downs of square drama and theater drama" as a clue To narrate the history of drama. Later, he and his students proposed three prose types: "chat style", "speech style" and "monologue", which provided a new development clue for the writing of prose history. These explorations have had a certain impact in the academic world
Experiments in narrative methods of literary history
The "Literature in the New Century" section of "The History of Chinese Literature" (cooperated with Wu Xiaodong). , on the one hand, it is an overall description of Chinese literature in the 20th century, and at the same time, it is integrated into the overall structure of "Chinese literary history" - this is another new attempt of Qian Liqun's literary history research determined by this structure. The focus of attention is on the intrinsic historical relationship between modern literature and traditional Chinese literature. It also means rigorous screening of literature of a century in the historical coordinates of thousands of years. A considerable number of writers and works have been included in this historical period. In the narrative, they disappeared from the field of research, while some other pioneering writers and works emerged from the long-term historical examination. After careful research, this book proposes its own literary history that is different from traditional textbooks. position. In the historical narrative, we also try to get rid of the influence of the literary history view of historical determinism and historical evolution, and pay more attention to the interruption, repetition, advance, lag, accident, and individuality in the development of literature to show the richness and specificity of history. In addition, taking the literature of Taiwan and Hong Kong as an integral part of "20th century Chinese literature", popular literature has entered the research field, and Jin Yong, a master of popular literature, has been fully evaluated; when describing the literature after 1949, the first It discusses "underground literature" for the first time, which also constitutes the characteristics of this book. This book also begins an experiment in narrative methods of literary history.
An investigation of Chinese literature in the 1940s
While focusing on the description of the overall history of Chinese literature in the 20th century, Qian Liqun began to focus his research on Turning to the investigation of Chinese literature in the 1940s. In Qian Liqun's view, the literature of the 1940s was not only the result of the natural development of modern Chinese literature (history) since the May Fourth Movement, but also gave birth to the development of contemporary Chinese literature (history) in the second half of the century (Qian Liqun believes that this An independent cultural form was formed in the last 50 years, which he called "Japanese and Chinese culture"); therefore, seizing the middle (transition, conversion) link of the "40s" and breaking into this point can play a role The role of taking an overall view (the development of Chinese literature and history in the 20th century). When entering the specific operation of literary research in the 1940s, Qian Liqun first carried out the excavation and arrangement of original materials.
He compiled and selected the fourth volume of "Theoretical Materials on Chinese Novel in the 20th Century", and together with his colleagues and students compiled the "Literature Series of Chinese Occupied Areas" (16 volumes), and discovered (or re-understood and evaluated) some writers , works, which is an important result of the ongoing "literary research of the 1940s" and a new attempt in his "personalized (non-textbook) literary history writing." This is an experiment on the structural and narrative methods of literary history: breaking the previous structural model of literary history, this book chooses "1948", a typical era that best reflects the historical transition and transitional characteristics of the 1940s. Literary events, schools, controversies, journals, works, and descriptions of the writer's spiritual journey that occurred during this year, looking forward and backward, clarifying the ins and outs, thus revealing the main clues and trends of literary development in the 1940s and even the early 1950s. This " The structural method of "looking at an era from an era" can bring into the research field people and things that are ignored (omitted) in the big literary history narrative, especially ordinary people in this era, what books do ordinary intellectuals read, what music do they like to listen to, What movies to watch, what jokes are circulated in the streets...such details of daily life have entered the narrative of literary history in detail, which also means certain changes in the concept of literary history. In the narrative method of literary history, this book places typical historical details in a relatively important position, pursuing rich, concrete and vivid descriptions of typical phenomena (characters and events) and details like reportage, and thus It creates a sense of place; but at the same time, it strictly rejects any fiction and requires every detail to have a specific historical basis. This book also made great efforts in the selection of narrative perspective and narrative tone.
Proposed the concept of "narratology of literary history"
As a literary historian, Qian Liqun is not only committed to the specific writing of "modern literary history", but also pays attention to the literary history behind the writing unique way. He has written successive articles to explain the literary history theories and methods of his mentor Mr. Wang Yao (and traced them back to Lu Xun), as a theoretical guide for his own literary history research and writing, and each of his research and writing practices has Have a clear and conscious purpose of the experiment and make a summary in a timely manner. He defines the task (goal) of his literary history research and writing as “going deep into the deep internal organism of ‘writers, works, and readers’ to examine, excavate, and discover intellectual groups and individuals (writers) in a specific historical era. ), reader groups and individuals, as well as the living conditions, experiences, confusions and aesthetic forms of various types of 'people' groups and individuals shown in the works, and from the comprehensive grasp of all these, it reveals the human beings in a specific historical era. The existential dilemma and its aesthetic form." He therefore emphasized, "As a literary historian, he must, like a writer, maintain social, historical, cultural and metaphysical dual concerns for 'people' (his living conditions, experiences, and confusions), and should care about both reality and transcendence." Straight to reality." In specific research and operations, he always grasped "typical literary phenomena" and broke into "one point" to see the "whole picture", which was both specific and nuanced and reflected the trajectory of development, which he used as his basic method for researching literary history. , and therefore proposed that the thinking characteristics of literary historians are to maintain professional interest and sensitivity in concrete, vivid details, and historical phenomena; at the same time, they must have the ideological penetration to discover the universal symbolic meaning behind details and phenomena. Qian Liqun also attached great importance to the issue of time and space in the study of literary history. He believed that "history" happened at that time and place, and the people who wrote history lived here and now. The so-called historical writing is a two-way movement process that keeps going back and forth: from here to there, trying to enter the historical situation, Put yourself in someone else's shoes, understand how and why people (individuals and groups) in that place and time made this or that choice, resulting in a certain historical proposition; and from there, face up to and reveal the importance of choice without hesitation. All serious and complex facts that arise in the process of (proposition) development and realization have consequences that the parties involved cannot foresee. Therefore, he proposed "put yourself in someone's shoes" and "face the consequences" as the basic principles for research and writing in literary history. Qian Liqun also proposed that two "intermediary" links must be grasped in the study of literary history: one is the "culture" between the economic foundation that ultimately determines the development of literature and literature. Later, Qian Liqun also based on the development of modern literature Based on the historical characteristics, from the many factors that influence the development of literature, the three major cultural elements that are most closely related to the modernization of literature are put forward: "publishing culture", "university culture" and "political culture"; and among the "publishing culture", "university culture" and "political culture" that influence and restrict the development of literature There is also an intermediary between the "cultural" background and the "text structure" of the work, which is the "writer's living condition and psychological structure" of the subject of text creation. Qian Liqun also emphasized that while paying attention to the updating of concepts and methods of literary history, one should not ignore the issues of historical writing form (structure, narration, etc.), and therefore proposed the concept of "narratology of literary history". His summary of these practical experiences and theoretical assumptions have also had a certain influence in the academic world.