Record of the cocktail era: "Modern" magazine: "Modern" magazine

Author: Zhang Yongsheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: This book explores and studies various aspects of the literary journal Modern from multiple perspectives, including the editorial philosophy and creative orientation of its magazine editor, representative columns such as poetry, the characteristics of translated foreign fiction and representative writers, the analysis of works by prominent critics, and the formation of the Modern literary group. It attempts to offer new interpretations and understandings of Modern and the writers and works associated with it. Of course, whether the goal is achieved remains to be seen. Most of the articles in this book revolve around the Modern magazine. As a literary journal that enjoyed great prestige in the early 1930s, it not only published works by authors such as Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Mao Dun, Xu Daofu, Ba Jin, and Lao She but also featured a large number of works and translations with Western modernist influences by writers like Shi Zhicun, Mu Shiyin, Du Heng, Dai Wangshu, Li Jinfa, and Lin Geng. This gave rise to a notable "modernist" literary group, though it remained loosely knit—without issuing announcements or manifestos, nor establishing independent collaborative publications. Some editors, like Shi Zhicun, the magazine's editor-in-chief, even actively avoided such trends. Nevertheless, the works they published in Modern demonstrated their shared literary tastes and artistic pursuits. To some extent, the magazine also integrated and reinforced these tastes and pursuits, further expanding their influence. Therefore, using Modern as a backdrop for studying these "modernist" writers, or examining the magazine itself as an object of study, both remain meaningful.