Literature And Secret Cultural Struggle In Occupied Shanghai

This dissertation is a case study of zazhi yuekan(1942-1945),or the Miscellany Monthly,mainly focusing on its secret cultural struggle and literature.The Miscellany Monthly was re-published shortly after Shanghai fully fell into the control of Japanese army.While the magazine was publicly seen as‘hanjian zazhi',a magazine of traitor,it turned out to be conducted by underground cultural workers from Chinese Communist Party after the liberation of Shanghai.Now it is undoubtedly considered as the important work of open cultural struggle waged by Chinese underground workers.By focusing on both the aspect of human agency and media of the Miscellany Monthly,this dissertation aims to explore the history of ‘cultural struggle' and its literary forms in the comprehensive periodical.Chapter 1 gives a close look into theories and methods of studies about literature in occupied region of China since the Xinshiqi,the New Era,in a historical manner.In particular,I put emphasis on scrutinizing rather bipolar concept of ‘literature' and ‘politics',and related research models since 1980 s.The three stages of scholarly tendencies are as follows: 1)The perspective of ‘Revolutionary history' was criticized and overcome in 1990s;2)Various research methods have been come up with since the ‘PostRevolutionary history' was presented;3)In recent years,‘East Asian colonialism' theory has been used by comparative studies that are covering the entire Chinese literature under Japanese ruling and occupation.Chapter 2 fully explores Yuan Shu group's cultural struggle in Shanghai secret war,and its related literary form and content in the Miscellany Monthly.On the one hand,by looking into wide range of historical materials of China and Japan,I describe in detail works of Yuan shu group in secret services,especially in Iwai Office.At the same time,this part studies periodical features of the Miscellany Monthly such as content and form,editorial policies and related ideas;CCP's strategies and instructions about the cultural war in occupied area,and their relation to the magazine.On the other hand,by closely reviewing the chief editor Wu Chengzhi's critiques,I investigate underground workers in a concealed battle line how performed tasks of cultural struggle by means of public publication.To be specific,I explore ‘cultural struggle's conceptions,methods,ideas,and related practices in the cultural scene in occupied Shanghai.Chapter 3 studies Yuan Shu group's work of collaboration,mainly by undergoing close-reading ‘proJapanese' news articles and reportages in the magazine.I argue that those articles are not merely the‘political umbrella' in pursuit of protection against the Japanese occupational forces,but also are important historical documents that provide us information about Japanese imperialist total war,especially its ‘war of thought'.These articles show us how Japanese responded to ‘Chinese problem' at the time,how they dealt with matters in occupied Shanghai.Chapter 4 discusses Sino-Japanese ‘cultural space' and cultural struggle of the Miscellany Monthly,focusing special issues of written and oral discussions.In the first part of this Chapter,I intent not to stop at simply investigating contributors and content of related events,but to veer into probing the way how Yuan Shu and his underground comrades built up the cultural space of the magazine through actively utilizing the ‘network of official human relations'.Secondly,I probe ‘local Japanese',or Japanese residents who lived in Shanghai for longer period time,addressing their thought on China and its relation to Imperial policies toward China.Thrid part is about the written debate over ‘Xinwenyi Bifa',or ‘writing style of New Literature'.Questioning the convential categorizations of the debate,I shift the focus from‘May Fourth or anti-Japanese nationalism toward ‘Dazhonghua(massification)' discourse.To this end,I carry out historical research on how Shanghai literati had contrasting approaches and visions on massifcation of New Literature in early 1940 s.Chapter 5 studies external contributors to the novel column of the magazine.On the one hand,I examine key contributors' thought on writing: Editors and novelists refused to remain silent and vividly stood up for their own voices,in turn,resonating with underground workers' cultural missions.On the other hand,as a case study,I closely read Xinjin zuojia,or new author,Xu Gan's literary writing since the outburst of Anti-Japanese war,showing that his novels demonstrate active engagement with and criticism for reality.