World Chinese Literature Studies: Second Issue

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 launched by Xingxing Press in Beijing. The articles included in this issue are relatively cutting-edge and touch upon many cutting-edge 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 derivative aesthetics of prose 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 affirming the positive evaluation of the works while ignoring the expression methods. Therefore, this paper proposes to use "romanticism" to replace it, with Wen Rui'an's Dragon Cries Across 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 formed a group of campus prose writers in the 1980s and 1990s who faced "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" to discuss the era's concerns of university campus prose writers born with cultural missions; the fourth section is a "romantic" writing that appears to be "anti-romantic," but beneath the calm words lies an oppressed cultural mission, which is also another narrative way of romance.
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" to discuss the era's concerns of university campus prose writers born with cultural missions; Section 4 is a "romantic" writing that appears to be "anti-romantic," but beneath the calm words lies an oppressed cultural mission, which is also another narrative way of romance.