On Christopher Caudwell's "Emotional Attitude"

In his short life,the British marxist Christopher Caudwell wrote a large number of books and explored many issues related to literature,among which the discussion of "emotion" was outstanding.He uses the term affective attitudes and emotional attitudes to describe the emotions,desires,ideals,and other factors underlying literature and art.This concept has promoted the development of traditional British marxist aesthetics,enriched the classical marxist theory of literature and art,and foreseen some important problems of western marxist theory of literature and art."Emotional attitude" contains two dimensions: one is unconscious,the other is socially conscious.The two dimensions are both distinct and integrated.In literature and art,the unconscious "emotional attitude" is hidden at the bottom,while the social consciousness "emotional attitude" is on the surface.However,"emotional attitude" changes dynamically.With the development of social history,the "emotional attitude" of social consciousness gradually changes into the unconscious "emotional attitude" in the new period,and integrates into the new practice to form the "emotional attitude" of social consciousness at that time.At the same time,both individual and collective "emotional attitude" have unconscious and social consciousness.Individual emotional attitude emphasizes the individuality and uniqueness in literary creation,while collective emotional attitude focuses on the expression of literature and art to the spirit of The Times and social consciousness.Therefore,Caldwell believed that literature and art should not only have individuality,but also highlight the collective will of the class and era.He emphasized the function of art centered on "emotional attitude"--one is the function of aesthetics,the other is the function of society.In short,"emotional attitude" also has aesthetic and social functions.Caudwell's "emotional attitude" is based on historical materialism,drawing on and integrating psychoanalysis,functionalism and new critical theory.He applied the unconscious theories of Freud and Jung to the analysis of "emotional attitude" and concluded that the "emotional attitude" in literature and art had an unconscious component.Plekhanov and at the same time his thought represented by the Soviet Russia on the basis of marxist theory,draw them on the idea of the emotional andsocial psychology,and Richards,the emotional function of language and the psychology applied to literary criticism,fully highlighted the "emotional attitude on the important role of literature and art".Caudwell combined psychoanalysis,functionalism and other theories with marxist theories to explain the connotation of "emotional attitude" and the social function of art with "collective emotion and illusion" as the core,and to reflect on economic determinism.Based on this,Caudwell predicted the future development direction of western marxism.On the other hand,through his reflection on economic determinism and his emphasis on "emotional attitude",Caldwell enriched and developed marxist ideological theory,which in a sense was a return to classical marxism.Therefore,Caldwell is an important node in the transformation from classical marxism to western marxism,and occupies an important position in the history of marxist literary theory with his creative theoretical construction.