Admirable Spirit And Dreary Life-A Study On Lu Ling And His Novels

As the most important member in July School and one of the most talented writerin the 1940s, Lu Ling's writing has been through three different stages, namelymodern, Seventeen Years and New Period and during the years he has created anumber of literary classics such as Hungry Guo Sue, The Children of A Rich Man andA Battle in the Lowlands. With a distinct literary style, Lu Ling fully displayed theliterature concepts and aesthetic pursuit of July School in his creation. Meanwhile, hewas closely involved in the disputes between July School and other literary forcesduring the 1940s and 1950s and therefore, the ups and downs in Lu Ling's personallife and literary creation can be served as a mirror when we look back at the history.Since Lu Ling rose to fame in his early age, the literature history writers in Chinahave evaluated and interpreted him within the restriction of July School. However,two different artistic features coexist in his works: gloomy and lively, the latter beingneglected by most readers and researchers. Except the well-known classics, the artisticand ideological characteristics of many works, especially those written in the late1940s and Seventeen Years are not fully explored and interpreted. While analyzing thewell-known works, this dissertation attempts to show various artistic features in LuLing's writing by focusing on those little-known ones.The dissertation consists of four chapters between an introduction and aconclusion. The first two chapters study Lu Ling's writing in the 1940s from the angleof aesthetic style, spiritual connotation, genre transformation and literaturemodernization. The third chapter analyses the intellectual narrative and its implicationbased on The Children of A Rich Man. Using the novels with workers and voluntarytroops as subject matter, the last chapter attempts to discuss the change and constancy in Lu Ling's works after 1949 and the relationship between the writer and the politicalenvironment. The approach of social and historical criticism is adopted as the base ofthe research and other approaches like cultural criticism, comparative study and textanalysis will also be used as supplements.The introduction first divides Lu Ling's writing into different periods. Followinga brief review of Lu Ling study in the past years, some potential problems are raised,and based on which, the dissertation proposes that Lu Ling's writing and his personalexperiences are still of great research value.The first chapter discusses Lu Ling's contribution towards the development ofChinese modern literature in 1940s from three different angles: literature character,aesthetic style and genre. We can find two different styles in Lu Ling's novels andshort stories: the gloomy style and the analysis of spirit are widely recognized byreaders and researchers and have almost been regarded the only characteristics of theauthor. On the other hand, the liveliness and sarcasm in his works are underestimated,which exactly indicates the fact that Lu Ling has developed to a mature stage in his artcreation. Long novel The Children of A Rich Man established his position in Chineseliterature history. The novel inherited and developed important characteristics of longnovels home and abroad in narrative and structure, and with it the intellectualnarrative in Chinese modern novels came to its maturity. Lu Ling created a seriesimage of vagabonds in his works and more importantly, he enriched and extended theaesthetic value embodied by his characters.The second chapter analyzes the differences and similarities between differentliterary forces within revolutionary literature. Lu Ling and Yanan literature depictfarmers in totally different ways; however, their perception of farmers can be seen,visibly or invisibly, in the texts of the other party. Besides, they have differentunderstanding of"happy reunion", which shows the divergence between modernenlightenment discourse and revolutionary discourse. Lu Ling's westernized languagestyle forms a sharp contrast with the popularized language in Yanan literature and thisimplies the writers'different choice towards literature modernization and different political pursuits behind.The third chapter analyzes the thinking value of intellectual novels with TheChildren of A Rich Man as an example. Jiang Weizu, Jiang Shaozu and Jiang Chunzurepresent three types of modern intellectuals in China. Jiang Weizu is the eldest son ina big family. By exploring the similarities in the eldest, Lu Ling penetrated deep intothe life and spiritual world of his character mainly from the conflict betweentraditional culture and capitalism culture. As a rare type of intellectuals, Jiang Shaozuexperienced the restoration from a cultural pioneer to a conservative intellectual.From him, Lu Ling keenly observed the stream of cultural conservatism in modernChinese intellectual history and approved of its rationality in the political environmentin the 1940s. A mixture of Hamlet and Don Quixote, Jiang Chunzu is the most matureimage of intellectuals in modern Chinese literature. Through his life experience, thewriter pushed the key questions in intellectual narrative: spiritual independence andfreedom, revolution and individual, tradition and modern, to its extremity.The fourth chapter mainly studies the literary creation during Seventeen Years andNew Period. In the special political and literature environment during Seventeen Years,Lu Ling changed his direction of art creation willingly. However, the writer's artisticindividuality and literature concepts can still be found between the lines in his novels.Through a detailed analysis of novels with workers and voluntary troops as subjectmatter, we can easily see that the intention of the writer, the effect of his works andthe literary regulations seem to coincide but actually fall apart. The critical spirit andthe humanism outlook in these novels are rare and therefore, of great value inSeventeen Years. In New Period, Lu Ling restored to the aesthetic standard adoptedduring Seventeen Years. Admittedly, his artistic level has declined. However, as aculture phenomenon, the decline vividly illustrates the regulation of ideology andreformation of the writers.In conclusion, as a writer with his own style, Lu Ling has produced many worksin different stages and displayed various artistic features. These features are closelyrelated to the writer's individuality, social thought, political and literary environment and ideological pursuit. Meanwhile, Lu Ling is a stereotyped writer and July Schoolbecame the only label for him while other writings irrelevant to it were neglected.Literature research should avoid overgeneralization and only by a faithful andcomprehensive study and with a rational and sober mind, can we enter the world ofthis ill fated writer.