Professor Chen Sihe’s point of view
The first person to propose this concept was Professor Chen Sihe. He defined this concept as “those works that were not published in time after they were written. Defined from a different perspective, it refers to writing activities that are not carried out by writers for public publication.” From the perspective of the academic community’s focus on “potential writing”, the introduction of the concept of “potential writing” is inseparable from the hope of literary researchers to change the previous unified narrative model of contemporary literary history, placing these works in the era of their writing rather than publishing them publicly. Discussing it in its time, from its timeliness with the public literary creation of the same period, we will inevitably find the "multi-layered nature" of the literature of the times. "Potential Writing 1949-1976", the first monograph in China to explore latent writing, published by Fudan University Press and written by Dr. Liu Zhirong, associate professor of the Chinese Department of our school, is the first academic work to fully explore latent writing in mainland China from the 1950s to the 1970s. monograph. The book is divided into four parts: "The continuation of marginalized literary trends", "From realistic fighting spirit to modern resistance consciousness", "Folk consciousness, literati mentality and literary spirit", and "Personal awakening in the era of '***famous'" In this part, the author tries to sort out the potential writing phenomena of this period from these four aspects, focusing on the continuation and evolution of literary tradition and intellectual spirit at the bottom of the era, thereby breaking the previous research on contemporary literary history that only focused on the literary works published at that time. One limitation points out that in an era of integration. The literary and intellectual spirit still has its remnants of diversity. Introduction to several issues of "potential writing" in mainland China from 1949 to 1976.
1. The special transformation of public space and private space.
2. Special space The character of Chinese writing.
3. Reshaping memory: the historical significance of potential writing.
The continuation of the marginalized literary direction in the first volume.
Introduction to the literary direction at the edge of the times
Chapter 1: The spiritual journey of a madman’s recovery: Shen Congwen’s spiritual clues after 1949.
1. Spiritual clues in “madness”.
2. Literature as the possibility of generating meaning.
3. Daily life, "sentiment" and "music": the literary and spiritual significance of "Congwen Family Letter".
Chapter 2: The Spiritual Transcendence of Modern Anxiety: On the Potential Writing of Anonymous (Part 1) 1. Transcendence and Anxiety: The Internal Contradiction of "The Anonymous Book"
2. The Weight of Darkness: Some Modern Anxiety Face
3. Brightness and Perfection: The Road to Spiritual Transcendence
4. "Planet Philosophy": An Uncompleted Exploration
Chapter 3 Painful Raindrops: On Unnamed Potential Writing (Part 2)
1. Poetry: A Crazy and Chaotic World
2. Short Stories: Discipline and Repression in Daily Life
3. Prose Essays: The Meditations of the Wise and the Whispers of the Lonely
Chapter 4: The Last Song of Wisdom in Life: Mu Dan in 1976
1. The Temptation of History< /p>
2. The formation of "I"
3. The conflict between two factors
4. The cycle of four seasons
Part Two: From Reality From fighting spirit to modern resistance consciousness
Introduction Persistence in suffering and the return of personal subjectivity
Chapter 1 Shooting and Persistence: Hu Feng’s Prison Writing
Chapter 2: Struggle in Despair: Peng Yanjiao and Lu Yuan’s Potential Writing
Chapter 3: “Little Flowers on the Edge of Life’s Purgatory”: Zeng Zhuo’s Song of Love and Hope in Suffering
Chapter 4: Disability, resistance and perseverance of life: Niu Han’s potential writing during the "Cultural Revolution"
Chapter 5: The fire is running: Zhang Zhongxiao and "Essays on the Dreamless House"
Part 3 Folk Consciousness, Literati Mentality and Literary Spirit
Introduction to Another Dimension of Folk
Chapter 1 Folk Consciousness and Literary Mentality: "San Yi Health Body" ”
Chapter 2: Folklore and the pursuit of beauty: Tang Shi Rushui’s journey
Chapter 3: Exploration of life on folk land: Chang Yao on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
Chapter 4 The Enlightenment Voice of Intellectuals in the Folk: Cai Qijiao's Potential Writing
Chapter 5 Memories of Folk Life: Zhu Dongrun's "The Biography of Li Fangzhou" and Feng Zikai's "Yuan Yuan Tang" Continuation"
Part 4: Personal Awakening in the "*** Famous" Era
Introduction: Personality as alienation, division and resistance to the times
Chapter 1: The wandering soul in the night: Gray Baby
Chapter 2: From a loner to an enlightened poet: Huang Xiang
Chapter 3: Schizophrenia of a generation: Index Finger
Chapter 4 The Birth of New Poetry: Baiyangdian Poets
Chapter 5 The Narrative of Debate: Zhao Zhenkai’s Novel "Wave" There may be potential writing at any time, but between 1949 and 1979 The literary history between the years is particularly meaningful.
Since the political movement deprived a large number of writers of their right to express their opinions and works, literary creation was in an extremely abnormal situation. However, all this did not completely end the tradition of intellectuals since the "May Fourth Movement". They were in ashes. Xinjinhuozhuan, with his sincere love for literature and life, wrote a large number of literary works in a hidden state. The reason why I call this type of phenomenon potential "writing" rather than "creation" is that I intentionally include many non-fictional works. In my opinion, such as the notes and family letters written by Mr. Shen Congwen during this period. Documents such as Zhang Zhongxiao’s reading essays, Fu Lei’s letters to his son, etc., although they are not fictional literature, no matter the beauty and richness of their words, the sincerity and mellowness of their feelings, the true misery of their living environment, these potential Writing constitutes half of contemporary literary history, and it is half of literary history with real cognitive and aesthetic value.
To understand a literary history term from an academic standpoint, some cumbersome definitions are needed. Potential writing refers to writing activities that a writer does not intend to publish publicly at that time. But this definition needs to be supplemented: As far as works are concerned, although potential writing was not published at the time, it was published several years later. If it is something that has never been published, it cannot enter the research field of literary history; as far as writers are concerned, Generally speaking, it is limited to those who did not consider publication when creating, or who wrote even though they knew they could not be published. For example, some works were originally created for publication, but were not published due to changes in the objective environment (such as the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, which forced many Writing in progress has to be interrupted), nor should it fall within the scope of potential writing.