Political Form of Aesthetics: A Study of Chinese Literary and Artistic Thought in the 1950s

Author: Wang Jiangang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-12-01
Features: This book observes the literary and artistic thought of China in the 1950s from the perspective of knowledge sociology. One of the fundamental arguments of this book is that the literary and artistic thought of China in the 1950s exhibits a typical political form, which we term "political-form literary studies." As an intensive designation for a mainstream left-wing literary trend, political-form literary studies originated during the left-wing literary activities of the 1920s and 1930s. The Yan'an period gave it a clear political orientation. The main paradigms and frameworks of political-form literary studies were largely completed in the 1950s, and by the early 1960s, the cultural science textbook compilation project systematized it, giving it a relatively stable disciplinary form. The book also explores the logical possibilities of a singular political culture from the perspective of human nature. These analyses form the basic content of Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of this paper, respectively. A singular political culture is indeed a product of social history, but once it forms, it can also act back on social history and related institutions. Compared to other fields, the realm of literature and art is one where the influence of a singular political culture is particularly evident. Literary concepts, literary forms, discourse thinking, creative methods, and aesthetic principles all reflect the inherent constraints of a singular political culture. This book examines the literary and artistic thought of China in the 1950s from the perspective of knowledge sociology, arguing that this thought exhibits a typical political form, which the author terms "political-form literary studies." It is believed that only by approaching it from this angle can one truly understand and recognize the literary and artistic thought, theory, and phenomena of China in the 1950s.