Vortex

In the Chinese culture context, Xiandai Pai is a widely used but still ambiguous concept. Mr.Shi Zhecun once had a saying that Xiandai Pai was a "vortex", which firstly means there is no exact and accurate definition of Xiandai Pai since it's never been mature and stable. Secondly, Mr.Shi likely means that the works of Xiandai Pai could be creative and in danger of getting lost at the same time. This dissertation firstly retrospects the origination and historical development of the concept of Xiandai Pai. Furthermore, it tries to explore the specialized historical content in China's modern and contemporary literature. The possibilities and covered fields in literature research brought by different historical context will also be discussed.The pedigree of Xiandai Pai in China's modern and contemporary literature is a grand one. My dissertation tries to focus the research object on the school which has already recognized and established in the modern literature history. This kind of limitation is not only because this literature school was the first collective emergence of China's modernism in novels, poems and other literature practices, but also because the Xiandai Pai had maximally entangled the complicated relations of aesthetics, ideology and social history since this first emergence. The anxiety inside and outside the text, the dealing and conciliation of crisis, specious existence and predicament have all implied the fated ambiguous cultural position of Xiandai Pai in China's modern history.This dissertation is consisted of four chapters. Chapter one mainly defines the object of this research. The whole school's character and different individual's position have all been covered. Symbolized by the issuing of Les contemporains magazine, the school and its members had been comparatively established and regulated. Through the discussion of different "roles" in the Xiandai Pai, the entangled inner relationship could be well clarified and the school's literature stand and practices could be well analyzed. Furthermore, by exploring the intertextuality of the school, poet Dai Wangshu proved to be in the key and luminary position of Xiandai Pai.Chapter two mainly discusses the relationship between Xiandai Pai and the Left Wing. The revolutionary experiences would be firstly encountered if we retrospect the development of Xiandai Pai. This chapter comes to the conclusion that in China's overall lagging historical context, the Xiandai Pai and the Left Wing had actually inspired each other than mutual confliction. The contrast of these two schools has restored or reconstructed that "Heavy Era". Both the Xiandai Pai and the Left Wing were doomed to be unable to avoid that heave load of the age.Chapter three mainly analyzes the time feeling and subjective consciousness of Xiandai Pai. Shanghai,the inspiring origination and solid base of Xiandai Pai, has reached the research horizon as a critical "shadow" role. The aesthetic experience of "contemporaneity" has brought not only the possible new literature development but also the danger of subjects' loss. Comparing to other members, Dai Wangshu and Lu Yishi have spectacular literature creations due to their different comprehension and understanding of "Modern".Chapter four mainly explores the final alienation and differentiation of Xiandai Pai. The school members gradually presented varied tendencies in both literature creation and social activities after the personnel changes of the Les Contemporains magazine. They had a final gathering in Xueshitai of Hong Kong during the And-Japanese War. They were dragged and pulled by different historical forces, had different political and literature choices. Their bondages with each other and the past had been cut off due to the war of the nation. Their life and their aesthetic ideals had been greatly changed. Since then, the Xiandai Pai had been formally differentiated.