Game Spirits' Fading Out

This thesis delves on the changing process of children's image in the children's literature featured as the realistic themes in the "Seventeen Years"(1949-1966) from the perspective of the game spirits. After the foundation of PRC, this kind of spirits have been gradually faded out in children's images in the children's literature for a period of time, and children's images in the novels have experienced some changes accordingly.During the initial stage of the foundation of PRC, the high-spirited and optimistic atmosphere led to relatively looser writing ambience, with some articles depicting the happy life of the juveniles in the newly founded China. The game spirits of Children's image were revealed naturally in the process of describing their happy lives. Nevertheless, this sort of children's image, despite being naughty ones, was destitute of the wild and free spirit in classic articles comparatively.In the early 1950s, Children's literature began to attach much emphasis on educational function, which was understood narrowly and initiated numerous novels, depicting the transition from naughty children to obedient ones. Children's game spirit and desire as well as the defects during their growth were described exaggeratedly among theses novels. In writing children's game spirits, achieving the naughty and perusing fun, this sort of literature displayed their innocence and loveliness vividly, filling the works with children's fun which, however, was not the terminal intention of the author. The description of children's playing nature and the exaggeration of their playing spirit was not the writers' original purpose. Instead, spreading first and then restricting it was their purpose. In this sense, children's images in the literature were frequently taken to task. These lovely, naughty, energetic and lively children, under the teaching of others and their self-restricting of inner-moral, turns to be submit to any etiquette and rules, without any energy.During the middle and late period in 1950s, children's literature was in the pursuit of the tightly combination of all kinds of political campaigns with the central task. The sincerity of the writers' writing children's literature was revealed by the suggestion or their following of all the instructions with the attitude of fearing. Implementing "positive education" with the association of every central task became the unspoken rules in the writing of children's literature. So, in the middle period of 1950s, there boomed a kind of literature reflecting juveniles and children helping the construction of such fields as industry, agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry, etc. The nature that was exclusive to children, especially the playing nature, was bad for the erecting of their images as models, which was also responsible for the fading out largely of the children's playing spirit. Only in few articles could this sort of spirit reveal itself and it just played the role of decoration for the children's identity. The key point of this literature is setting up models so as to be learned and imitated by others. Moreover, the juveniles and children taken as models all took priority to the collective benefits and became the advanced model later on.It was not until 1960s that the children's literature turned to be the insrument for class conflicts. The children's literature getting the resource from the real life depicts everything involved into just this theme. There was many a novel describing the battle of wits between children and their class enemies, ended up in children's winning the fights. Because of the incompatibility of having fun and the cruelty of class conflicts, this game spirits of children's image have completely disappeared in this sort of literature. Each of the juvenile and child in the literature is a little hero who could subdue ghosts, find the problems that cannot be found by the adults, achieve the tasks that also cannot be accomplished by the adults, which are bestowed to all the children in literature with the name of genius.With the stronger embodiment of the educational and instrumental theories, the children's literature in the "Seventeen Years" ended up in deviating the normal way of that kind of literature, leading to the complete disappearance of the playing spirit in that literature. During this process, with the fading out of game spirits of children's images, the children's image in children's literature featured as the realistic theme experienced four sorts of changes, from the initially few naughty kids to transitional children, and to advanced children later, and to little prodigies finally . The images of children in those four periods turn out to have some overlaps in time when they are released; however, they all have their own relatively intense period of time in accordance with the outpouring of each type of image. It is essential to reflect our own children's value and children's literature value soberly, getting rid of the so-called educational instrumental theory, adjusting the attitudes in writing as well as breaking through the fixed ways of the traditional writing so long as the Chinese children's writers are willing to create outstanding pieces of the children literature with the nature of game spirits, or difficulties will come into being in writing works, which can be compared with the classic playing works.