The Value Pursuit of Free Love - A Cultural Study of Love Descriptions in 20th Century Literature: A Cultural Study of Love Descriptions in 20th Century Literature

Author: Shen Dunzhong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: The subtitle of this book is "Cultural Studies on the Depiction of Love in 20th-Century Literature." During the research process, the author goes beyond the mere confines of literary studies. To more clearly illustrate people's views on marriage and love and the value standards of behavior within a certain period, the author often delves into the marriage and love trends or behaviors of the time society or individuals, and conducts a thorough comparative analysis from the perspective of the conflict and integration of old and new cultures. This interweaves the depiction of marriage and love in literature and life with actual social phenomena, clearly presenting the true nature and complexity of changes in marriage and love. Indeed, for an external ideology or value system to take root and become an everyday behavioral pattern in a national culture, it must repeatedly integrate with the national culture. Any "linear" optimistic expectations or promises cannot be the actual form of cultural development. The book depicts the evolutionary trajectory of the pursuit of the value of free love, extracting two threads: One begins with sentimental novels, passes through the May Fourth period to revolutionary love narratives, and then to the "lovers as comrades" that integrate literature and life. The pursuit of the value of free love evolves in line with the changing mainstream values of the times, and love is filled with romantic and idealistic colors. The other thread starts with the establishment of a sacred belief in free love that transcends all values during the May Fourth period, the continuous questioning of the value of free love in literary works, passing through the creations of Lu Yin, Zhang Jiaoling, and Su Qing, to the emergence of new realistic novels in the mid-to-late 1980s. These two threads converge in the works of new realistic writers. This depiction provides a clear framework for the study of the value belief in free love in 20th-century literature and is indeed a unique insight and achievement of the author. In the process of studying the deconstruction of the sacred belief in free love, the author summarizes Zhang Ailing's novel creations as the "deconstruction of the lady image," and the marriage and love depicted by new realistic writers as the "disappearance of the virtuous wife image." From the research perspective established in this book, this is also apt and precise.