Abstract: In recent decades, great progress has been made in the study of Shen Congwen's works in the literary and art circles.
As well as political criticism and later recognition and attention to his works. During this period, some research results have been achieved, but in the study, it also
There are some shortcomings that need to be further explored.
Keywords:: a summary of Shen Congwen's novel research
In the history of China literature in the 20th century, Shen Congwen was a controversial writer, and the study of his works began as early as the 1920s and 1930s. Here, the author will be divided into two parts: "Early Shen Congwen's research" (research before 1949) and "Contemporary Shen Congwen's research" (blank period after 1949 and research from the new period to the present), and strive to make a more comprehensive discussion on the basic situation and development trend of Shen Congwen's research field.
First, Shen Congwen's early research
The early study of Shen Congwen was biased and simple in many places, but after all, it was Mr. Shen Congwen's comments when he was still in the literary world, which not only had certain historical value, but also was the cornerstone and foreshadowing of the study of Shen Congwen's works.
In the early study of Shen Congwen's novels, there are two different critical tendencies and modes. One is a sociological criticism mode with ideological content and true typicality as the core. These criticisms mainly focus on Shen Congwen's early creations and works with local themes, such as "empty writers" [1] "writers without thoughts" [2] and "the characters in the works are empty" [3]. Secondly, Su is an outstanding representative of this criticism and affirmed the unique style of his works. In On Shen Congwen, she revealed that Shen Congwen's works "injected savage blood into the decadent Chinese nation with the power of words, making it excited and young, thus competing with other nations for the right to survive on the stage of the 20th century." [5] Liu Xiwei's views are also representative. In his Border Town and Eight Horses Map, he thinks that Shen Congwen's artistic creation shows "concrete life" and his "contained ideals" are all melted in his works "in their respective lives".
On the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the original literary criticism turned into the shaping of political figures. Guo Moruo made a comprehensive criticism of Shen Congwen's literary activities in the article "Rejecting reactionary literature and art": Shen Congwen is not only the representative of "Peach Blossom", "painting nude with words, even writing erotic palace with words"; What is more serious is that "the special Shen Congwen, as an opposition, has been consciously active." It shows that there were misunderstandings in Shen Congwen's comments and research at that time.
Second, the study of contemporary Shen Congwen
Before entering the new era, from 1949 to the 1970s and 1980s, no article about Shen Congwen's research was published. During the 30 years when Shen Congwen was criticized by politics and his writing was ignored, among overseas Chinese scholars, Shen Congwen's research has made remarkable progress. Among them, Xia Zhiqing and Sima Changfeng, Chinese-American scholars, have the greatest influence on Shen Congwen's New Literature History of China. The evaluation of Shen Congwen in these two literary histories is completely consistent in these three aspects. 1. Give Shen Congwen the status of "everyone", 2. Bring his research into the vision of world literature, 3. Affirm Shen Congwen's deep concern for the living conditions of modern people.
In 1980s, Shen Congwen changed from being buried and belittled in the past into a hot spot of research, and the research on Shen Congwen's works in mainland literature gradually developed from relatively scattered general literary criticism and political judgment to scientific and in-depth systematic research, reaching its peak 1988 after Shen Congwen's death. During this period, various literary histories, such as Qian Liqun's Thirty Years of Modern Literature in China and Yang Yi's History of Modern Novels in China (Volume II), began to pay attention to Shen Congwen and his creation. The research results mainly focus on the following aspects: 1. Transform Shen Congwen politically. Yu Ling's inclination and artistic features to Shen Congwen's novels and his later research monograph From Border Town to the World have proved that Shen Congwen is not a "reactionary writer" at considerable length, and Yu Yongxiang further proved that Shen Congwen is not a reactionary writer in the Historical Picture of Xiangxi. 2. Discrimination of Shen Congwen's creative methods. Dong Yi believes that Shen Congwen's early creation has its own romantic outlet, but in the 1930s, his thoughts and art were in a mature state, and he had combined realism and romanticism to create. Some researchers believe that the combination of realism and dream expression is the best embodiment of Shen Congwen's creative style. 3. Explain the aesthetic value of Shen Congwen's creation from the representative writers of local literature or lyric novels. For example, Gao Yun pointed out in his "On Shen Congwen" that in the history of modern literature in China, "the most detailed and full description of China's customs" is Shen Congwen; Xu Zhiying and Cecilia N thought that Shen Congwen's works provided people with "rural life in another environment different from the ancient pastoral style". Yu Ling pointed out that Shen Congwen's novels "completed a qualitative leap from theme to form" in "the development track of China's modern lyric novels and the aesthetic choice of life content". 4. Broaden the horizon and thinking of research. Many commentators have elaborated from the perspective of the relationship between Shen Congwen's creation and folk literature, such as Di Lunfu's Rooting in the Folk-the Unique Style of Shen Congwen's Novels, from the perspective of Shen Congwen's creation and the blood relationship of Miao people, such as Long Christina's On Shen Congwen, a Miao writer and his creation, from the perspective of the literary theme of love and beauty that began with Shen Congwen in the May 4th Movement, and from the philosophical basis of Shen Congwen's aesthetic thought. These studies are not at the same level and the results are different, but they all show the richness of Shen Congwen's works.
In the 1990s, under the background of inheriting the fine traditions and fruitful results of the previous period, Shen Congwen's research developed further, pushed forward in a deeper, more comprehensive and more systematic direction, with fruitful results and novel viewpoints, forming a preliminary prosperous situation. This paper focuses on the background thought of his creative subject, the classification of his works, the study of his personal works and the comparative study of his works, and makes a comprehensive synthesis and summary as far as possible.
Background research
How to treat the influence of family background on Shen Congwen's literary creation? Some researchers believe that Shen Congwen's behavior of leaving the army to embark on the literary road and the aristocratic atmosphere in his works have a lot to do with his family background. His whole creation can be regarded as "tracing back and snuggling up to the respected family background and the childhood scene illuminated by the family background." [6] Other commentators believe that it is reluctant for Shen Congwen to be an official only by his grandfather's generation. He inherited the spiritual temperament of "free life" and "struggling life" from his parents, which set the tone for his lifelong advocacy of freedom and adherence to ideals. [7] Mr. Jin believes that "Xiangxi has little influence on Shen Congwen's later preference for literature, because he grew up in an officer's family, not a scholarly family." [8] Generally speaking, family background is not the direct reason why Shen Congwen embarked on the literary road.
(2) Classification of works and single article research.
The classification of Shen Congwen's novels is usually carried out in the order of rural and urban themes. Some researchers believe that Shen Congwen's early and middle Xiangxi works show the artistic beauty of Tang poetry, while his later Xiangxi novels are a kind of rational beauty of Song Like's poems. In addition, some critics have classified it from other angles: for example, Han Liqun's Research on Military Fiction [9] and Tan Sichu's Research on Love Literature [10] are all the same opinions, which need further argumentation and discussion. Generally speaking, the classification and corresponding research of Shen Congwen's works are new, except for the limitations of his urban novels, which basically follow the ideas and methods of the 1980s.
At the same time, the study of single works has also been deepened to a certain extent. The discussion of Shen Shi's masterpiece Border Town is naturally the most important. For details, please refer to Wu Yundong's Review of Border Town Studies since the New Period, which has caused some disputes among other Shen Congwen's novel researchers. For example, is Husband the theme of the return of human nature, or does it reflect a kind of oppression of husband power and cultural consciousness of husband power system from beginning to end? [1 1] Is xiaoxiao's ending "writing that xiaoxiao and the people around her are living a life of ignorance and numbness due to generations", [12] or just "through the dramatic change of xiaoxiao's fate, it provides strong evidence for the natural attitude and principles of Xiangxi people"? [13]- These arguments have played a positive role in forming a new academic contention to some extent.
(C) Comparative study of writers' works
In 1990s, the academic circles compared Shen Congwen's novels with Chinese and foreign literary works, which provided a new perspective and helped to grasp the development of literary history as a whole. In the comparative study of Shen Congwen's novels and foreign literature, Yu Ling was the first explorer who paid attention to linking Shen Congwen with foreign literature. His research in this field is highlighted in two monographs, one is Seeing Shen Congwen from the Culturalization of Han Miao and the Influence of Chinese and Western Cultures, and the other is Exploring the Insider of Life, which discusses in detail the relationship between Shen Congwen's creation and western culture and the influence of western concepts. Later, Zhao discussed Shen Congwen's echo with Chinese and foreign cultural thoughts in his book Shen Congwen and Eastern and Western Cultures, thus discovering and demonstrating some originality in his creative implication. Wu comprehensively and deeply discussed the relationship between Shen Congwen and Freud's psychoanalysis in his book Shen Congwen-Building the Palace of Human Nature.
Some researchers observed Shen Congwen's novels from the perspective of the overall development of literature in the 20th century, and found some creative connections between modern and contemporary writers and Shen Congwen. Some people think that Shen Congwen and Jia Pingwa, a local writer in contemporary literary world, have similarities in cultural value orientation and aesthetic pursuit. Others compare Shen Congwen and Wang Zengqi from the stylistic point of view, and think that although the latter draws lessons from the former, there are subtle differences in language, narrative perspective, structure and philosophical implication. Some researchers associate Zhang Chengzhi with criticizing urban civilization with the help of local civilization, and think that "they all compare different levels of urban and rural civilization in China in the same cultural system, and reveal the great differences between urban and rural cultures from the perspective of human nature and moral conditions, but Shen and Zhang have profound differences caused by cultural starting point and background of the times." [ 14]
Looking at the research of Shen Congwen's novels by scholars in recent decades, it is not difficult to see that the research idea has shifted from focusing on the analysis of works to the in-depth and meticulous theme, from narrow to open, and the research method has adopted new fields of multi-angle understanding, such as introducing western philosophical theories and methods, structuralism, archetypal criticism, comparative literature iconology methods, psychoanalysis and so on. It can be said that the research level has been greatly improved and reached a new level. At the same time, however, there are still some problems to be further explored, such as the comparative study of Shen Congwen's novels and Faulkner's works, the narrative study of Shen Congwen's novels, the military and political culture of western Hunan, and the Nuo opera culture.
With the passage of time, the importance of Shen Congwen's novels in the 20th century China literature history will be continuously recognized by people.
Precautions:
[1] Shi Bao's An Empty Writer 193 1 year Literary Life 1 volume 1 issue.
[2] He Yubo's Criticism of Shen Congwen's Works and On Modern Writers in China Volume 2 Shanghai Dahua Bookstore 1936 Edition.
[3] He Yubo's Criticism of Shen Congwen's Works and On Modern Writers in China Volume 2 Shanghai Dahua Bookstore 1936 Edition.
[4] Li Tongyu's Collection of Shen Congwen's Short Stories contains New China 1935, 3 volumes, 7 issues.
[5] Su's "On Shen Congwen" originally contained "Literature" Volume 3 No.3 1934 September.
[6] Huang Xianwen "On the influence of Shen Congwen's family background on his creative path" Journal of South-Central University for Nationalities (Philosophy Edition) 1996No. 1 issue.
[7] Item "Nature Elves and Journal of Jishou University" (Social Science Edition) 1995 No.3.
[8] Jin Shen Congwen Biography Current Affairs Press 199 1 Edition, p. 28.
[9] Han Liqun's "On Shen Congwen-Reflections on China's Modern Culture" Tianjin People's Publishing House, 1994 edition.
[10] Tan Yichu's On Shen Congwen's Love Literature and Journal of Shandong Normal University (Social Science Edition 1990 No.2)
[1 1] The tragicomedy of American Zhang Shengtai's revival of traditional husband power —— Rereading Shen Congwen's Husband, No.2 of China Modern Literature Research Series, 1992.
[12] The Spiritual Tragedy of Mountain Wind —— Reading Shen Congwen's Rustling and Appreciation of Masterpieces (1996, No.5)
[13] Psychological Distance in Cheng's Creation and Shen Congwen's Novels Journal of Sichuan Normal University (Philosophy Edition) 1996 No.2.
[14] Wang Xirong's unique cultural aesthetic perspective —— From Shen Congwen to Zhang Chengzhi, Journal of Lanzhou University (Social Science Edition) 1994 No.2.
References:
[1] Works of Shen Congwen Huacheng Publishing House and Hong Kong Branch of Sanlian Bookstore (1984 Edition)
[2]' Complete Works of Shen Congwen' Beiyue Literature and Art Publishing House, 2002 edition.
[3] Sima Changfeng's New Literature History of China Zhaoming Publishing House 1975 Edition.
[4] Yang Yi's History of Modern Novels in China Volume 2 People's Literature Publishing House 1988.
[5] Yu Ling's Biography of Shen Congwen, Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House, 1988 edition.
[6] Yu Ling's "From Border Town to the World-A Study of Shen Congwen as a Writer" Joint Publishing Company Limited, 1985 Edition.
[7] Jin Shen Congwen Biography Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House 1992.
[8] Wu Shen Congwen-Building a Temple of Human Nature Fudan University Press 199 1 Edition.
[9] Sun Bing compiled "Impression of Shen Congwen" Lin Xue Press 1997.
[10] Ba Jin, Huang Yongyu, et al. "Long River Flowing-Remembering Mr. Shen Congwen", edited by Shen Congwen Research Office of Jishou University, Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House, 1989 edition.
[1 1] Yu Ling on Shen Congwen's creative value, Literature Review, No.6, 2002.
[12] Wang Baosheng's The Story of Shen Congwen Chongqing Publishing House 1995.
[13] Gao Feng "Beijing School Scholars: Academic Style", Shanghai Education Press, 2000.