On The Relations Between The Periodical Medium And Literary Theory

In the Chinese and foreign histories of literary theory, literary activities have been always divided into four major parts, including the world, the writer, the work and the reader in various theoretical work. It can be said that this kind of division has neglected the status and function of the media in literary activities. In fact, the medium is one of essential factors in literary activities. To a certain extent, the change of the media is one of the most revolutionary factors in the transformation of literature and literary theory. Therefore, without the prosperity of the media, such as newspapers and magazines, based on modem printing technology during the Late Qing Dynasty, there wouldn’t come out the innovation of May-Fourth literature, neither the modern reforming of traditional literary theory. Then the main purpose of the paper is to explore the general and special relations between the periodical medium and literary theory on the basis of the research on the principle function of the periodical medium, and further study the intrinsic relations between the subjectivity of the periodical medium and the public sphere of Chinese modern literature, to provide some beneficial experience in understanding the relations between the periodical medium and modern literary theory from general to special and from particular to universal.Speaking of the functions of newspapers and periodicals as a new medium after the invention of the modem printing technology, it mainly creates a brand-new way for "objectifying", disseminating and accepting human thought by fast "printing" in large scale. It is the most revolutionary way than any other media formerly created by human, because of its huge capacity for information, great disseminating velocity, widespread influences and stable storage and so on. Therefore, the most important function of the publication medium is separating human thought from the body by large-scale "printing", and "objectifying" the ideological activities, thus realizing the great storage and fast transmission of the thought of human individuals outside the brain. And we may say the birth of modern publication medium surpasses the finiteness of individual life, it also breaks the limits of the traditional disseminating pattern by human mouths and ears in the space and time. Therefore, the publication medium is the giant pusher and "the multiplier" of thought which promotes the modernization of modern society.Once any new medium participates in the production and dissemination of human spirit, it will not only change the original ways of the expression and dissemination of ideology, but also the ways of accepting information, thus change human cultural life which will adapt with the material life in every aspect. According to Mcluhan’s viewpoint of "media equal to extensions", any new medium is essentially the enlargement and extension of some parts of human body. This means that the publication medium is the infinite enlargement and extension of the functions of writing by hands, dissemination by mouths and acceptance by eyes and ears. Therefore, the influence of modern publication medium which emerges since the Late Qing Dynasty on Chinese traditional literature and literary theory does not lie in the content it disseminates, but in the change it causes to the patterns of production, dissemination, reading and criticism of traditional literature and thus in the creation of a new mode of literary theory.Moreover, according to Habermas, the public sphere is an opinion space for the ordinary populace to publish their opinions about public affairs through literary and cultural criticism. It is not only a public opinion space, but also an agent and an intermediate area between the state power and civil society. In the forming process of public sphere, the publication medium not only plays the significant joint role, but also is in itself the constituting mechanism of the literary public sphere. That is, when newspapers and magazines become the organizer and the tool of modern literary criticism, the publication medium has become the principle part and the dominant power of modern literary public sphere. This means that the periodical medium with a serial and regular publication provides a powerful support for modem intellectuals to participate in public affairs through literary criticism.Speaking of the general relations between the periodical medium and literary theory, firstly, as a modern, new communicating tool of huge capacity, fast dissemination and widespread influence, the periodical medium promotes the modern transformation of traditional literary production, while changing the writing, disseminating and reading behaviors of traditional literature. Its functions consist in:1) the periodical medium proposes some new slogans and names for literature to bring forth new literary ideas;2) its popular dissemination urges the traditional literary theory to abandon the expression forms of Cihua and Shihua and realize the popular transformation of traditional language of literary theory;3) its pursuit of the largest circulation for survival brings forth the prosperity of the novel in Late Qing Dynasty, and thus make the novel take the place of poetry as the orthodox type in modern literature. Therefore, during the Late Qing Dynasty, the Bourgeois intellectuals propagate their claims of reforming and enlightenment with the aid of periodicals, literature and art, the publication medium has broken the limits of traditional literary theory and made a decisive step to the transformation of literary idea, the popularization of literary theory as well as the change of the idea of literary style and so on.Secondly, because the periodical medium can quickly transmit the newest trends in literary circle and the issues in intellectual circle to the mass audience, the publication medium which emerges during the Late Qing dynasty soon has promoted many important literary movements and trends in modern literary history. Newspapers and periodicals have solved many important questions in the developing process of modern literary theory in a short time, and laid the foundation for the modern transformation of literature and literary theory since the Late Qing Dynasty. Moreover, through exchanging columns such as the Letters from the Audience, newspapers and periodicals have provided a public exchanging space for the discussion between writers and readers, which has not only provided a free speech platform for the intellectuals and remolded the relations between writers and readers, also to a certain extent become the cultural space for the intellectuals to carry on their imagination of the modernity of the nation and the country through literary criticism.The relations between the periodical medium and literary theory are not irrevocable. In a special historical age, the relations change as a result of the change of the relations between the periodical medium and politics, as well as its status and functions, and it will cause corresponding change in the words pattern and functions of literature and literary theory finally. For example, during the early1950s, along with the alternation of old ideology with new one, a historic process of political socialization started in China. The domain of literary theory is always an important ideological front filled with thought conflicts and theoretical arguments, therefore, the politicization of literary criticism and theory becomes the most direct part of the political socialization in early years of the new nation. The politicization of literary theory signifies the process of literary theory unifying with the politics thought of the parties while political ideology becomes the dominant power in each domain of social life, which is indeed a one-sided process of literary theory changing into the elucidator and mover of political ideology. For the periodical medium, the politicization means systematization. The systematization of the periodical medium results in:on one hand, the colleagues publication which emerges since the Late Qing Dynasty is compelled to vanish, and the periodical medium turns into the ideological machine led by the party after the socialist transformation by the new political power; On the other hand, in the process of rectifying local literary publications and reorganizing national ones, Journal of Literature and Art comes out and becomes the thought platform and the organizing tool for the party to lead national literary enterprise in early years of the new nation.The influences of the periodical medium on literary theory are embodied not only in the dissemination of new literary theory and the criticism of old one, also in the build of the discipline of literature and art effected by the periodical medium represented by Journal of Literature and Art. It is well known that the discipline of Chinese modern literary theory is a new one which is introduced from Soviet Union in the early years of the new nation. At the beginning, its curriculum is mainly undertaken by the curriculum of literary history in Chinese department in universities, and the gap between the teaching and the realistic literary movements appears and has caused the disaffection of some young students. Taking this as a turning point, Journal of Literature and Art initiates a large discussion about the deviation of the teaching of literature and art in colleges in the early years of the new nation. The discussion has changed the situation of learning the Soviet model as the central task of the teaching of literature and art, thus established the absolute dominant position of Mao Zedong’s literary thought in the liberal arts education. In addition, along with the development of the discussion, there comes the question of the teaching materials of literature and arts. The delay of the teaching material is quite obvious:the foundation is weak, the type is frail, and the content is divorced from various transformation of the era. Therefore, in the later discussion Journal of Literature and Art carries on criticism to old teaching materials, and established the guiding principle of taking the ideological remolding of literary teachers as the main task. It has exerted a notable influence on the ideas and styles of compiling the teaching materials of literature and art in the first batch in1950s.In addition, the influences of the periodical medium on literary theory are also embodied in promoting the literary movements, thoughts and trends in specific time. In fact, the literary critic movements during the early years of the new nation (for example, the criticism of the movie Biography of Wuxun, and Xiao Yemu’s novels and so on) are related not only with the ideological discipline of thoughts by the new political power, also with the ways in which Journal of Literature and Art participates in the literary criticism. It can be said that the literary critic movements during the early years of the new nation are organized by Journal of Literature and Art to a great extent, in terms of the communicating models of the periodical medium, by ways below:first, it sets up a huge literary sentry troop to collect current intelligences in various areas and departments of ideological domains and fronts; Second, it launches literary critic movements through the attachment of the Editor’s notes, which also to a great extent decides the pattern planning and the development direction of national literature and arts; Third, it enlarges some individual events and puts it into the public opinion sphere in these ways:to make the academic criticism administration, individual viewpoints public, as well as to demonstrate critic objects and so on. In a word, Journal of Literature and Art not only has deeply affected the direction of modem literature in the pioneering stage, also has constructed the fundamental mode of literary criticism from1950s to the Cultural Revolution.Besides the above factors, the relations between the periodical medium and literary theory are also closely related with the business model, the control system and the survival condition of the periodical medium. For example, the periodical remanufacture in early1980s has afterward caused the differentiation of the business model of literary periodicals, then literary theory and criticism fades out very quickly from the entertaining popular literary publications and turns to college newspapers and official newspapers of research institutes and so on. After the1990s, although the internet becomes a brand-new medium for the production and dissemination of literary theory, the production of literary theory can obtain validity only when it enters into the academic and elite media such as college newspapers and institution publications and so on, since the current academic evaluation system still only acknowledges the achievements which are published on paper. It decides that literary theory can only be produced and disseminated in the narrow and small medium of institute periodicals.According to Habermas, the newspapers and the periodical are the most important integrant parts of literary public sphere; therefore, the subjectivity of the periodical medium has become the key factor which decides the autonomy of the literary public sphere. The subjectivity of the periodical medium means it is independent from the outside compulsory factors, such as the political power and the economic interests when it decides what, how and to whom it communicates. Therefore, we may say that, as the public opinion space between the state power and the civil society, the literary public sphere obtains its independent, equivalent and conversational qualities from the subjectivity of the periodical medium. Only when the periodical medium has obtained enough subjectivity, the literary public sphere can be founded on the basis of equality, dialogues and approval of differences, and correspondingly plays a role in supervision of the public opinions and cultural criticism to the state power, thus functions as an intermediate zone for buffering the opinions, fusing the viewpoints and coordinating the benefits between the political power will and the ordinary populace. However, looking from the development of Chinese modem literary theory, it is the great historical missions of inspiring people’s wisdom and saving the nation which it has undertaken when it starts in the Late Qing Dynasty that result in its close connection with the social revolutions and the political activities and so on. Therefore, the modern public literary sphere which is made up of the politicized and socialized literary theory and the periodical medium as the tool for political ideology is certainly notably characterized by politicization. Similarly, in new China, after the socialist transformation, the publication medium is integrated completely in the politicized management system, and its subjectivity is weakened seriously. Accordingly, the independent, equivalent and conversational qualities of the public sphere of Chinese modern literature have vanished nearly completely. Of course, the literary criticism and theoretical debates which occurred in this kind of public sphere show a political identity from the very beginning:the political criticism comes before the academic criticism, the political statement is more important than the theoretical debate, and the individual equal academic dialogues are submerged by the intolerance in thought, and so on.In brief, as the important mechanism of production, dissemination, reading and criticism of literature and literary theory and the central joint region of factors of literary activities, the subjectivity of the publication medium is the precondition of the existence of the literary public sphere on the basis of equality, independency, and approval of differences. It can be said that the literary public sphere will have no independent, equivalent and conversational qualities without the subjectivity of the publication medium, and then will inevitably be reduced to the tool and servant of some compulsory power. Naturally, in a literary public sphere short of differences, the production, criticism and theory of literature will inevitably become the propaganda machine of some ideology and the maintenance power for some economic interests. It can be said that the lost of subjectivity of the media is inceptive of the inclination, distortion, disorganization and collapse of the literary sphere of the time, and also the politicization, instrumentalization and becoming other of the literature and the literary criticism and theory of this time. Therefore, the healthy development of literature and literary theory requires not only the respect to unique literary ideas, to multiple values and esthetic interests, but also the respect and maintenance to the subjectivity of the publication medium as an important constituting mechanism of the literary public sphere.