Disciplined Rural Literary Narration In Contemporary China

The thesis gives some cases analysis on the writing and criticism about the rural novels in 1940's~1960's, attempting to discuss the forming process of the narrative criterion about the Chinese contemporary rural novels. Speech at the Forum on Literature and Art at Yanan (1942) by Mao Zedong established literary order in the Liberated Area. After that, writers do their writing in accordance with the literary policy and the writing standard which established by the order. However, it was still an unsolved problem that how to correctly understand the standard and perform it appropriately. It must have a gradually process to achieve finally, and there comes some deviation inexpectantly. In this process, the literary criticism has played an important role to instruct and discipline it. Through criticizing by the commenters step by step, the right standard was to carry out specifically in writing. Then writers learned gradually how to express the main theme appropriately. Finally, the classical shape of the Chinese rural novels was established, and it means that the literary writing was put in the politics order thoroughly.It is the two novels, The Sun shines on the Sanggan River and The Storm that initiated a new writing pattern which serves for the revolutionary struggle leading by the Chinese Communist Party. The writers, Dingling and Zhou Libo, wrote their stories following the guiding literary policy and the writing standard. However, the works also divulge some message that there is some fissure between the village society's reality and the Party's policies. In addition, the hardship that the party mobilizes peasantry to take part in revolution represents the passive position of the peasants.Could not Walk That Road continues rural narrative model of the liberated area. It profoundly grasped the contradiction between the peasants' private mentality and the collectivism path, which the Party had to impel. Upon that, the work makes reforming peasants' private mentality as a key subject. The author and commenters misstate the conflict between peasants' material desire and the socialism thought, and explains it as two paths struggle between the capitalism and the socialism. That opened a new, stable but lasting subject in the rural novels.Three Miles Bay expands the theme of Could not Walk That Road, which describesthe conflicts and contradictions of the Cooperatives Movement in the rural community. Through exhibiting the changes of the rural society orders, it reflects the profound psychological and behavior changes of the peasants. Zhao Shuli has a strong interest in describing real rural life, which netted him a limited style to write rural stories, can't understand historical inevitability in his novels. This makes his writing neither furious conflicts and struggle nor the great image of heroes.The Enormous Change of Country organizes the story from the eyes of a revolutionary cadre which come from other place. The novel tries to unfold the process of the Cooperative Movement by describing the changes of the various characters and the families. However, outsiders' perspective and depicting scenes of daily life make the conflicts and contradictions of opposing class be not enough severity and the heros be not enough ideal.The History of Pioneering aims to figure a peasant hero of new nature. It is the hero who works as a bridge that melt the gap between the historical rationality of taking the socialistic road and peasants' private will. The successful image of Liang Shengbao calls up effectively the new subject of the peasant, make the images of them change from passive objects into positive historical actors. Through that, the Party's will and the wishes of the peasants about how to achieve the good society are combined together. However, there is some difference about how to shape the heroic image, such as the mental action and behavior. Moreover, the new peasant was also possessing some nature of the old one.The narrative model of class struggle in The Bright Day and The Golden Road is perfect. The heros, Xiao Changchun and Gao Daquan are no longer heroic images of peasants, but professional revolutionists. Every space of the peasants' daily life has become the battlefield of class struggle. Since then, the horizons of the writers and commenters fully coincide, so literature are directly changed into replicas of policy.