Criticism Of The Theory Of Honest Writing In Literature

On the domain of literature and art, "honesty" is always closely connected with"the reality of art"involved in the essential idea of literature and art. the honesty of the writing body have been seen as a critical subjective element by authors and critics for generations, so it is a common sense beyond doubt that honesty have gone into the comments of the works. Just like the words we always say that"honesty is the life of art","the more honest, the better","the work reflects artist's honesty"……I believe, however, this conclusion in common sense is questionable and is not in accord with the facts. In fact, both the authors and critics have only talked about the "honesty " on the one hand, that the writing body "must honest" and the critics "call in honesty", ( of course I absolutely agree with the idea that"writing needs honesty"), but on the other hand, how can the author do to be "honest"? In other words, how can we test the"honesty"of the writing body? No one has answered this question.This article has selected four representative literary phenomenon from the Chinese Contemporary Literature, through which we can see some clues: in the 20th century, the appearance of the authors'honesty was the idea of Enlightenment, and Enlightenment thought was the value of literature then; after "TALKS AT THE YENAN FORUM ON LITERATURE AND ART" was published, the appearance of the authors'honesty was the truth of politics, and in that time political truth was the standard to measure the value of the works ; in the period of pioneer literature, the authors the appearance of the authors'honesty was the recognition of true self-spirit, such recognition also worked on behalf of the value of works then; along with the advent of time consumption and the rise of mass media, some authors emphasize writing honestly at the same time that contends that "there is no connection between honesty and the value of the works." In any case, we can see that the authors'honesty in writing have closely related with the value of the works. Therefore, it is not surprising to consider honesty as a principle to judge the value of works.Further, this article will criticize on the theory of honest writing in literature. Just because the entire flow of Literature activities include not only the author's writing activity, but also the activities of dissemination, consumption and reception of literary works, and only through the activities of dissemination, consumption and reception can the literary works be realistic literary works and realize their own values, we might demonstrate in two aspects: the body of writing and the acceptance of the society. around the body of writing, this article makes a point of view that "it is impossible to test whether the author is honest or not" and "there is no positive connection between the intention of the writing and the value of the work", because it is impossible to test whether the author is honest or not, and there is no positive connection between the intention of the author's writing and the actual operation as well as the practical results, it has fundamentally destabilized the conception in common sense that "the more honest, the better", and cut off the causal connection between the two. If the writing intention of the author is thought to be a standard of literary criticism, it is easy to fall into a ridiculous situation.Around the acceptance of the society, this article will demonstrate in two aspects: "readers cannot read the author's honesty", "the consumer society has impact on honesty in literature". First of all, whiling reading and appreciating literary works, as a recipient of literature, the conclusions of the readers are often made with a certain degree of subjectivity, therefore, the reality of art in the work will be put on layers with strong subjective colors, and different judgments of the authenticity of works will be made by different recipients. In addition, because of the objective truth that the recipients exist in the society, such strong subjective colors can hardly achieve the degree of full ultra-utilitarian and super-rational, the judgments of the recipients will change along with time and place. Secondly, when the history have gone into 1980s, along with the reform and opening up in china and the globalization of the world economy, the West advanced modes of production and consumption have been introduced as well as the Western consumer culture. In addition, propelled by the strong forces of the mass media, consumer culture spreads in a rapid manner in china, which gives the Chinese society the characteristics of the consumer society. In this language situation of consumer culture, as an important form of culture, literary is faced with enormous challenges, and fundamental changes have taken place. We can clearly see the disintegration of literary aesthetic, which have a direct impact on the authors and readers of literature as the main bodies in the process of literary production and consumption. In this language situation of consumer literature, faced with the loss of their subjectivity, the honesty of literature is also blanking.Now that there is no essential connection between the honesty of the body of writing and the value of works, where is the source of the value of works? I think that the value of works is made by the authors'writing abilities and the recipients'accepting abilities. Of course, this does not mean that the author's writing abilities and the recipients'accepting abilities are the only two source of the value of works, but it is the most dominant factor.