His Literary Criticism Thought Research

Shen Congwen, who is famous as a typical writer of "Jingpai" in1930s and1940s, has a profound influence in modern Chinese literary field. His numerous literary works enabled him to be noticed and acknowledged, meanwhile, his thoughts about literary criticism is drawing increasing attention today. Based on former researches, this paper intends to make a new exploration on the literary criticism view of Shen Congwen, including formation, contents and value. The thesis is divided into three chapters:Chapterl mainly talks about the formation of Shen’s view on literary criticism,which has a strong connection with his personality. Abundant social experience, deep humane attainments as well as strong sense of mission are the chief factors in the formation of Shen Congwen’s personality. Shen Congwen insists that literature is independent of the business and the politics. He brings up an idea that literature is the most effective way to improve humanity.Chapter2analyzes the contents of Shen’s view on literary criticism which includes the attitude of literary criticism, the rules of literary criticism as well as the means of literary criticisma. Shen regards literary criticism as a helpful friend of both writers and readers. He proposes the literary criticism should be impartial. He considers "humanity","felicity","harmony" as important rules of literary criticism. Shen Congwen writes literary criticism according to his intuition and expresses his ideas in unique language. In addition, he is good at employing the comparative method in his criticism.Chapter3describes the value of Shen’s view on literary criticism, which inherites the spirit of Chinese classical literary criticism as well as enlightens contemporary literary criticism.