Utopia And Chinese Literature In The Early Twentieth Century

China was in a critical period of transition in the early 20^th century(1900-1928),during which the literature was deeply rooted in utopian ideas.Intellectuals expressed their yearning for an ideal new China and criticized the darkness and cruelty of reality through writing.Observing the literature of that period from the perspective of Utopia is not only to recall and commemorate,but to reunderstand the literary ecology at that time,and to provide some enlightenment to the present literature and society which are in the transition again.The research period of this essay is about 1900-1928,but some important texts slightly beyond this range will also be involved.On the basis of extensive collection of materials,this dissertation tries to explore how and to what extent the development of Chinese literature in the early 20th century was affected by Utopia.The main contents are as follows:The introduction part first defines the concept of Utopia,and then sorts out the evolution of Utopia's meaning,Utopian tradition in Chinese culture,and the acceptance of Utopia by modern Chinese intellectuals.It also gathers the previous research results on Utopia and Chinese modern literature.Thus,the reasons and significance of choosing Utopia as a perspective,and the possible innovations it may bring can be concluded.The first chapter outlines the trajectory of Utopian thoughts in the early 20th century of China on the basis of a large amount of historical data,and analyzes the causes,characteristics and significance of the Utopian thoughts in the late Qing Dynasty,the period after the Revolution of1911,and the May Fourth Movement.The relationship between Utopia and literature is analyzed from the view of political culture,which lays a foundation for the discussion in the following chapters.It can be clearly seen that Utopia began to have modernity in the late Qing Dynasty,usually pointing to the modern nation-state;Utopia after the Revolution of 1911 had a close relationship with the Republic,it was constructed under the framework of the Republic,or pointed to a more perfect social ideal.During the May Fourth period,the way intellectuals thought about Utopia was changed.They paid more attention to"people".Therefore,the relevant texts were rarely biased towards Utopia's meticulous planning,but as a spiritual expression.The second chapter discusses the influence of Utopia on literary narrative from the perspective of time and space.It was the renewal of intellectuals'space-time consciousness that made Chinese Utopia change from“Peach Blossom Garden”to“The Future of New China”,and the transition of time and space dimension had added new features to literature.As far as time is concerned,a lot of"future"narratives began to appear in literature,and the fact that the two texts New China's Future and The End of the World appeared at the same time showed the entanglement of different time concepts;in terms of the space,the Utopia space of this period had the mobility and growth,reflecting the political ideal of modernity.Of particular note is the frequent appearance of celebration images,and this imaginary space-time community promoted literature as an action.The third chapter analyzes the influence of Utopia on literature from the perspective of characters.The transformation of the identity consciousness of the Utopian thinkers created different types of Utopia forms,which led to differences in the images of Utopian characters.In fact,when Utopia entered literature,it brought some new characters to literature,such as international students,scientists,etc.It also changed the images of old characters,such as women.The female image in the Utopian texts had gradually changed from a leader or creator to a normal"person",which was also a kind of discovery of zilch.The transition of the ideal character image reflected the transformation of Utopian thought.In addition,in some Utopian texts,rituals of nature test or the state of absence of the subject are very common,reflecting the different political ideals of different authors.The fourth chapter mainly discusses the reasons,manifestations and significance of revolution as a literary theme in the process of approaching Utopia.When intellectuals pursued Utopia,they usually took revolution as a necessary path,and the center of revolution changed with the transition of Utopian thought.When the revolution became the theme of literature,the writers either alerted the public with the wickedness of Utopia,or attracted people with the advantages of Utopia,thus strengthening the legitimacy of the revolution.However,the paradox contained in Utopia itself often caused the expression of the revolution to fall into a certain dilemma,such as individual dilemma and rational dilemma.The conclusion part summarizes Utopia's role in promoting the transformation of Chinese literature in the early 20th century,and makes an account of Utopia's influence on literature in the1930s and 1940s.On this basis,it reflects on the wrong paths that Utopia may enter,such as totalitarianism and nihilism.In the end,it is concluded that if there is no Utopia,literature will no longer be transcendent,and human civilization will eventually stagnate.