| The period from 1977 to 1993 is a period of historical transformation during which profound changes occurred in Chinese society,and it is also a period of prosperous intellectual narration in Chinese literature.After the "Cultural Revolution",dominated by political discourse,intellectuals got the identity of "people".Since the criticism and reflection of "ultra-left" politics,intellectuals tried to re-establish the status and value of “people” as subjects.Humanity,dignity and value have become the core content of literary concepts and enlightenment discourse.While the discussion of humanitarian and literary subjectivity reflects their will to free themselves from political dependence and their exploration of their own discourse.This is a major event in intellectual reconstruction of their subjectivity.However,in history,we could not find enough space to the development of the subjective discourse.Under the influence of the market economy,the social status of intellectuals has gradually been marginalized.The search for ideal humanity has been shattered by the reality of the commodity society.The spirit of intellectuals in literature has been gradually declined.On the whole,under the constraints and influence of politics and the market,intellectuals in this period showed a shift as "periphery-center-periphery".The discourse of intellectuals showed a process from general consensus to differentiation.Value rationality centered on humanity and subjectivity gave way to instrumental rationality centered on economy.Sublime and high ideals were submerged in daily life,the value search in life was obscured by the narration of excessively released desires.The subjective spirit of intellectuals was vague in public.This essay takes the narrative of intellectuals as the research object in Chinese literature from 1977 to 1993.Focusing on the study of the elements and mechanism of intellectual subjectivity,it discusses the relationships among social structure,cultural structure,ideology and intellectual’s social identity,cultural consciousness,and literary concept in the modernized transition period from the perspecties of social history,ideology,culture and some specific texts.Finally,the essay reveals the institutional and structural power of intellectual spiritual changes.From the theoretical and textual level,it represents the historical development of the reconstruction and frustration of the intellectual subjectivity.This essay is divided into two parts.The first part is about the identity of intellectuals and their theoretical discourse,which mainly analyzes the formation of the intellectual social identity and their theoretical subjective discourse.Policies on intellectuals was adjusted after the "Cultural Revolution",which caused the formation of intellectual subjectivity as the dominant position.Also,it led to the popularity of the intellectual themes.The creative concept,content of expression and character images of intellectual literature highly coincide with political discourse in the new era.However,the intellectuals did not fully appeal to politics.The debates about the humanitarian and literary subjectivity reflected the intellectuals’ efforts to seek their own discourse.The intellectuals broke through the theoretical forbidden zone of "humanitarian" and integrated the universal humanity,common humanity and common beauty made from the Enlightenment in the West into the theoretical framework of Marxism.The integration paved the way for humanitarianism in the context of socialism.However,due to the influence of ideological factors,humanitarian discussions were forced to stop,while the pursuit of subjectivity by intellectuals kept forward.The subsequent discussion of subjectivity in literature was a discourse practice that aestheticized humanitarian issues.They tried to avoid the ideological risk of the subjective discourse with the "beauty-freed kingdom",which carried the human subjectivity with that of literature.The ideal enlightenment of intellectuals could be used in literature continuously.From the mid-1980 s to the early 1990 s,with the changes in social structure and the development of the market economy,the ideological and structural differentiation among the intellectual group became increasingly prominent.Wang Meng’s theory of “avoid the sublime” ignited the intellectuals’ emotion accumulated for a long time.A great discussion on the humanistic spirit was sparked.In the discussion,the stance of intellectuals was extremely divided.The intellectuals of the humanistic spirit,that is,the adherent of subjectivity,still advocated the ultimate value----human dignity and power.They tried to use the enlightenment of dematerialization to maintain the elite position and subject status in the market economy.While opponents used the optimistic post-modern anti-grand narrative of historical empiricism to criticize the falsehood of subjective dreams in humanistic spirit and subconsciousness of "knowledge-power"."To avoid the sublime,dispel the sacred,and evade ideals” is their discourse weapon against subjectivity,but in fact,it also represents the disappearance of intellectual idealism and their spirit of subjectivity.It is the last discussion of subjectivity of intellectuals.Since then,the central position of Chinese intellectuals and their literature has become vanished,drowning in the surging tide of market economy.The second part is about the theme and image theory.The narrative of intellectuals in the literature of this period has experienced a "trilogy" of subject reconstruction and decline.In the first transitional period,from the end of the Cultural Revolution to the mid-1980 s,intellectuals returned as sacred victims.Scar literature and introspection literature narrated the history of suffering on the aesthetic and sacred way,confirming the legitimacy of the intellectual narrative in the enlightenment discourse and identity.Intellectuals have completed the first step in the reconstruction of their subjectivity.Subsequently,the intellectual narrative focused on the liberation of human nature and the promotion of individuality.Individualism,free will,love,ethics,sex,and life consciousness were restored and upheld.The discourse of human nature in literature has become more abundant and deeper,forming a climax of subjectivity theory and practical exploration.In the second period of social transformation,from the mid-late 1980 s to the early 1990 s,under the impact of the market economy,the structure and thinking of the intellectual group have split up and the aestheticization of daily life and popular culture has impacted the subjective imagination of intellectuals.Idealism and high spirits have faded and excessive desire showed the evil of human nature in the intellectual narratives of avant-garde literature and neo-realistic novels.Intellectuals were floating in the conflict between traditional culture and western thought.At the same time,the modernization that intellectuals had eagerly aspired became a social reality,but the wide gap between economic development and spiritual was huge,which has caused their anxiety to modernization.The narrative concepts and images of intellectuals in literature have undergone obvious changes.The subjectivity has been lost to the public,and the enlightenment and rational spirit of intellectuals has been gradually declined. |
