A Study On Shen Congwen’s "Self-canonization"

The generation of literary classics is a historical process,during which the writers themselves are not incapable of doing anything.As an important writer in the history of modern Chinese literature,Shen Congwen,who is famous for his unique style and rich creative achievements,took the initiative to undertake the historical mission of constructing literary classics.He placed himself in the historical time and space of modern Chinese literature and world literature and instilled the mission into himself with consistently conscious pursuit of classics and a profound understanding of the value of his works.Therefore,during the process of achieving his mission,he showed a distinct color of “self-canonization”.The so-called “self-canonization” is a process during which a writer displays a series of behaviors and takes means to make his own works enter the sequence of literary classics and be an important part of literary classics.A writer’s “self-canonization” consists of two kinds,the effective one and the ineffective one.It is obvious that Shen Congwen’s “self-canonization”belongs to the former one.There are two reasons for this.The first is that Shen Congwen had a strong sense of pursuing literary classics and started from the anxiety of influence to strive to create great original literary works by adopting the artistic technique of defamiliarize.This can be claimed to be his inner drive to achieve his goal of “self-canonization”.The second is that Shen Congwen was always ready to adopt various methods to interpret,confirm and promote the value of his works.This is the external condition that assisted him to access to “self-canonization”.To be specific,Shen Congwen achieved his goal of “self-canonization” in the following four paths:Firstly,Shen Congwen evaluated his literary works by making full use of the functions of selection,sorting-out,preservation,evaluation,and dissemination of selected novels.In the process of compiling and printing the anthology,Shen Congwen displayed his rich creative achievements by publishing his self-selected collections like Selected Novels of Congwen,and took a stand against the neglect,doubt and criticism imposed on him by the literary world.It is quite helpful to correct his negative image in the literary world at the early stage of his literary career.Additionally,in his life,Shen Congwen kept revising his Autobiography of Congwen,of which the literary text can best show its characteristics and help to restore and confirm Shen Congwen’s authentic image by interpreting the “Self in Xiangxi”.Meanwhile,Shen Congwen made conversations with both himself and the readers in his autobiography and regarded this book as a classic “textbook for cultivating writers”,so that young people who are interested in literary creation can confirm Shen Congwen’s true “Self in Xiangxi” and accept the guidance and instruction in the“Textbook for Writers’ Growth”.What’s more,Shen Congwen took an active participation in the activities related to literary translation.He especially took advantage of the translated works The Chinese Earth: Stories by Shen Tseng-wen and Living China: Modern Chinese Short Stories to make his works enter the vision of the whole world literature,in the hope of occupying a place in the field of world literature classics.Secondly,Shen Congwen strived to construct a classic system through literary criticism.He made self-interpretation,realized self-positioning and won a seat in the circle of literature by deliberately gathering the force from the mass.Shen Congwen had his own profound and unique understanding of classics.In order to construct a complete,self-sufficient,unique and scientific classic system,he wrote and published a number of articles about literary review,including current reviews,letters,prefaces and postscripts.By doing these,he not only helped to establish relatively fixed evaluation standards for literary classics,but also expressed his own understanding on how to create literary classics.Accordingly,Shen Congwen made a wide comments on the literary works of his peers and made a comparative study between their works and his own.He also presupposed his ideal readers and critics for his own works,thus realizing his self-positioning in the context of the history of literature.In this ever-changing literary field in 1930 s,as a writer “within” modern literature,he actively launched several fierce literary debates,such as Jinghai Dispute and the Dispute Against “Almost”.With the help of the power of the group,he made great efforts to create an aesthetic atmosphere of liberal literature,so as to seize the right to speak in the literary world and made his creative ideas and aesthetic pursuits widely known.Thereby,his “self” finally occupied a seat in the field of modern literature,and he pointed out the direction for the creation of “great Chinese literary works”from his own standpoint.Thirdly,Shen Congwen achieved his goal of “self-canonization” by means of the educational function of literature along with his own social identity and literary influence.A literary work become a classic must be tested by time and recognized by others especially by later critics and readers.It is obviously insufficient for a writer to just rely on his writing and interpretation.If “self-canonization” does not receive a response from the literary world,and if it is not recognized and accepted by readers and critics,the literary work will still be an isolated text and cannot become a recognized literary classic.Shen Congwen had a very clear understanding of this.Therefore,he made full use of his multiple social identities as a university teacher,a newspaper editor,and the core role of the “Beijing School” in the later period.By means of classroom teaching,editing literary supplements,group singing,and making friends,he continued to make efforts to select young writers and new literary talents as the objects to carry out literary education,spread his personal aesthetic pursuits and classic concepts,and practice his literary ideals of “recreating” classics and reshaping“new literature”.Fourthly,during the process of literary creation,Shen Congwen created “Cuicui”as a character with profound aesthetic meaning,and constantly adjusted and revised the aesthetic form according to the transformation of his own concepts on classic.On the surface,“Cui Cui” is a classic literary image created by Shen Congwen in his masterpiece The Border Town.In fact,Shen Congwen created the image of “Cui Cui”through his entire literary career,because the characters such as Liangu,Sancui,Xiaoxiao,Sansan,Yaoyao,Qiaoxiu and so many girls are somehow the same type as “Cuicui” in essence.Through the historical evolution of the image of “Cuicui” in the text,we can systematically observe the entire creative process of Shen Congwen.Under Shen Congwen’s pen,“Cuicui” is not only a unique and classic aesthetic form,but also a literary mirror reflecting his concept of “self-canonization”.The linear development and changes of Cuicui’s image are closely related to Shen Congwen’s concept on classic,accordingly,as well as his ideas about novel,writing methods,and stylistic experiments.From the text level,it indeed shows Shen Congwen’s effort and self-consciousness to write literary classics,the great Chinese literary works.Shen Congwen’s “self-canonization” not only expands the thinking and understanding of classics in modern Chinese literature,but also promotes the final establishment of his literary status as a classic writer.To discuss and study this issue from the perspective of the creative subject not only can bring new interpretations of Shen Congwen’s views on classics,views on creation,literary ideals,editorial thoughts,and educational concepts,but also reflect Shen Congwen’s rich and unique structure of the mind,the change of emotions and the consciousness of life from another aspect.It helps to open new channels for us to deeply intervene in Shen Congwen’s spiritual world,fate and creative process.Therefore,a comprehensive investigation and examination of Shen Congwen’s “self-canonization” is of great significance to the study of Shen Congwen,the literature of the “Beijing School” and even the study of modern Chinese literature as a whole.