World Chinese Literature Studies

Author: Zhu Wenbin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-12-01
Features: The second issue of World Chinese Literature Studies, sponsored by the Institute of World Chinese Literature at Shaoxing University of Science and Technology, has recently been officially released by Xingxing Press in Beijing. The articles in this issue are relatively cutting-edge and cover many frontier topics in the field of Chinese literature studies. We welcome readers' comments and corrections! This paper attempts to establish the "romantic" tradition since Wen Rui'an, and discusses several types of "romanticism" as well as the resulting aesthetic of the essay, and the potential limitations. This romantic tradition can be replaced by "feeling the times and mourning the country" in Chinese literature, but "feeling the times and mourning the country" is a theme-based interpretation that is both "Chinese" and "positive," highly valuing the positive evaluation of the works while ignoring the expression methods. Therefore, this paper proposes to use "romanticism" as a replacement, with Wen Rui'an's The Dragon Cries for a Thousand Li being particularly representative of this concept. Additionally, the main subjects of this paper include Lin Xingqian, Zhu Jiahua, He Guozhong, Pan Bihua, Xin Yinong, and others, who were campus essay writers in the 1980s and 1990s who experienced "internal and external troubles." The paper is divided into four sections: the first section defines the criteria for selecting texts and the definition of "romanticism"; the second section discusses Wen Rui'an and Lin Xingqian, who have different styles but share a similar "vocabulary" that resonates as a narrative mode for fixed situations; the third section focuses on "passing the torch" and discusses the era's concern of campus essay writers born with cultural missions; the fourth section is a seemingly "anti-romantic" romantic writing, but beneath the calm words lies an oppressed cultural mission, which is also another narrative way of romanticism.
Section 1 defines the criteria for selecting texts and the definition of "romanticism"; Section 2 discusses Wen Rui'an and Lin Xingqian, who have different styles but share a similar "vocabulary" that resonates as a narrative mode for fixed situations; Section 3 focuses on "passing the torch" and discusses the era's concern of campus essay writers born with cultural missions; Section 4 is a seemingly "anti-romantic" romantic writing, but beneath the calm words lies an oppressed cultural mission, which is also another narrative way of romanticism.