Symbolism and Modern Chinese Literature

Author: Wu Xiaodong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-06-01
Features: Establishing a dual reference framework of Eastern and Western literary traditions is a dominant intention in this study of the relationship between Symbolism and modern Chinese literature. However, whether this intention can truly be realized depends on a specific examination of modern writers' Symbolist creative practices. The purpose of this examination is not merely to confirm that the original form of Western Symbolism exists in China in a replicated form, as such a simple assertion often falls into the trap of Western-centricism. The concrete argumentation process is also aimed at proving which Chinese writers and modern works are Symbolist. While the empirical influence at the phenomenal level is undoubtedly indispensable, it is merely a starting point. The truly valuable work lies in examining the specific pathways through which Symbolism and Chinese writers' creative practices merge, in identifying the deeper artistic expressions that Symbolism brought to modern literature, and in analyzing how modern writers creatively transformed heterogeneous elements into their own national aesthetic style during the process of absorbing and internalizing Western influences. The true achievements of Symbolism's influence on modern Chinese literature lie in the unique artistic creativity of the writers. The examination of this creative artistic generation cannot be replaced by empirical descriptions of the influence. Based on the above considerations, this book focuses more on those writers who creatively absorbed Symbolist poetics and artistic expressions and dedicated themselves to higher artistic synthesis in their specific creations. They do not pursue "formal resemblance" to original Symbolism but melt Symbolist poetry with their unique life and artistic experiences, thereby integrating it into an organic and harmonious component of their own artistic creation. The core artistic question they grapple with is not imitation but creation. Symbolist poetics is reinterpreted for them as a deeper aesthetic and cognitive way of grasping the world, and thus their achievements represent a more profound transformation of Symbolism in Chinese literature, striving to integrate this transformation with the cultural psychology and aesthetic habits of the national tradition. Their creative achievements fully demonstrate the possibility and reality of incorporating the foreign tradition of Symbolism into the process of nationalization.