The Study Of "Stories" (1963-2005)

From a perspective of Cultural Studies, this paper examines the characteristics of Stories throughout different historical periods with a combination of both macro and micro analysis.I study the beginning period of Stories (1963-1966) in terms of its relations with state ideology. I discuss the operation of compulsive political discourse which represented state ideology in the period of planned economy, as well as the conflicts, infiltrations, even compromises between state ideology and the mechanism of folk narrative. The magazine of Stories was undoubtedly a product of the socialist educational movement, and the"revolutionary stories"published in it were the results of the reconstruction of folk arts by compulsive political culture. However, the political culture represented by"revolutionary stories"was interrelated with folk culture in a variety of ways. Those links between them gave the revolutionary stories complex and diverse cultural traits. Those revolutionary stories exhibit not only diversity but also gaps and ruptures, due to the inequality of power between political and folk culture. The main characteristic of the revolutionary stories lie precisely in those gaps that result from conflicts, interactions and mutual penetrations between different discourses and different cultural traditions.In order to highlight the characteristics in the second stage of development in Stories (1974-1978), I focus on the Revolutionary Stories published from 1974 to 1976. I investigate the impact of dominant political discourse on literature based on an analysis of themes, genres, character formations, and artistic techniques. I argue that during this period, both the selection of themes and characters, and the arrangement of plots, were subject to the slogan of"Continue Revolution under the Dictatorship of the Proletariats". If the first period of Stories was only a result of limited combination of literature and ideology, the second period manifested the complete reconstruction of the folk discourse by state political ideology, and the thorough submission of literature to politics.In its third stage of development (1979-2005), Stories has gone through a period of a transition from political orientation towards market orientation. I will examine the characteristics of the magazine in this period and the cause of its transformation in relation to the conflicts, negotiations, and compromises between dominant ideology, folk culture, and the market. After reform and opening up, principles of market have brought boundless vitality to Stories and helped it to get rid of its status as a handmaiden of party politics. However, over-reliance on the "principle of market" occasionally has led to the misuse of the principle and a vulgarization in editorial taste. In brief, during this period, Stories has accomplished the transformation from politics to market and obtained its social and economic benefits through conflicts, negotiations and compromises between the "principle of Political Correctness","principle of literary autonomy" and "principle of market". The magazine manifests the complex relationship between dominant state ideology, the market and the popular.