The Evolution of New Literary Realism: A Series of Studies on Literary History

Author: Wen Rumin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: This book primarily discusses the realistic trend in modern Chinese new literature. Although it inevitably touches upon literary associations, schools, creation, criticism, and debates, all are examined from the perspective of the trend. In fact, this is a study of the history of thought, with a clear central thread but a relatively broad scope. In the "Preface" of the book's first edition, I mentioned that the approach taken in this book is primarily "historical narration." From the complex phenomena of literary history, it selects some prominent "points" to grasp the trajectory of realism as a literary trend during the thirty-plus years after the May Fourth Literary Revolution, examining its relationship with other schools of thought, the reasons why it became the "main current," its role in advancing or constraining the entire new literature, and certain characteristics it demonstrated in the context of world literary development. While writing this book, the author not only consulted a large amount of historical materials but also made every effort to understand various theories of realism both in China and abroad.