The Literality “Breakthrough”of Bob Dylan

The news that the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Bob Dylan has caused fierce debate in the literary world.The Writers and researchers who have long followed Bob Dylan thought he’s well-deserved,the people with opposite views questioned his identity as a writer.Dylan has already gained a very high reputation in the field of mass culture,but these reputations are far from the academy.The number of academic treatises on Dylan is limited and basically outside the academic school.The event that Dylan won the Nobel Prize made him truly enter the vision of academia,It also makes us think about the meaning behind this event: For what reason can Dylan get this literary award? What is the relationship between his works and literature? Based on the award ceremony speech,this award not only affirmed the value of Dylan’s works,but also explored the richer meaning of the proposition "literature".Starting from these clues,the article discusses the following three questions in three parts: What is the artistic style of Bob Dylan’s " a system of song and poetry " ? How he deal with the dilemma of the times and cultural challenges in his artistic practice? How did he make breakthrough come ture and achieve artistic innovation in a " literality " way.Chapter One: This part redefines Dylan’s works from the perspective of "literality",discusses the possibility of criticizing Dylan’s work in a literary way and explores the characteristics of its " a system of song and poetry " art form.The development of industry and media has changed the ways to perceive the world,the art forms related to this process have also changed.Modern media technology and business operation modes have spawned the prosperity of mass culture.The event that Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize is not only recognition of his practice in art,as well as recognition of the mass art behind his works.Compared with traditional single-form art,mass art has multiple forms,so it cannot be studied with the old aesthetic paradigm.Specifically,Dylan’s works is beyond the scope of "literature" and must be studied with the concept of "literality".Starting from the concept of " literality ",Dylan ’s lyrics and music can be unified as a form of “a system of song and poetry ”.On the one hand,this form provides audiences with a "recreational" understanding field through accompaniment while giving the text a new aesthetic meaning.On the other hand,this form is close to the public and easy to understand,while avoiding the excessive vulgarization or elitism of art.The vision of " literality " allows us to enter Dylan’s works from a completely new angle and explore its artistic merit and practical significance.Chapter Two: This part lists the fields of reality that can best reflect Dylan’s "literality" practice.Dylan continues to practice in art while confronting these fields,so we call these fields “siege”.There are two aspects of siege in front of Dylan.The first siege is about culture: Southern American culture is the origin of Dylan’s artistic style,but he also criticized it’s backward thinking;The elite culture of western world has nourished the rich poetry of Dylan’s lyrics,but it also is excluded from the popular music industry behind Dylan;The popular music industry is the foundation of Dylan’s works,but the defects of commercial operation limit the artistic quality of Dylan’s works.The second siege is about his historical context: "War" is the most intense and profound theme in Dylan’s early works.Dylan explores this human dilemma in a wide variety of styles and continues to explore the answer to "war";Dylan’s active performance in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960 s led the outside world to name him "protest singer" for a long time.Dylan resented the outside world’s political interpretation of his work.He wanted to achieve a higher artistic level,so he always maintained a "parallel relationship" with the civil rights movement.Chapter Three: This part starts from the concept of "literality" and discusses how Dylan can break through all these sieges.The angle of "Literature" reflects Dylan’s special practice: " breakthrough ".During Dylan ’s long creative career,Dylan achieved resistance to “formal authority” by continuously betraying the established art path.On this basis,he achieved resistance to ideological shackles.Dylan continued the tradition of English folk ballads and returned to the American Puritan tradition while actively innovating.he used traditional corpus to fight the nihilistic narrative of postmodern.Dylan is at the "edge" where multiple fields intersect,so he is squeezed by the combined force of these fields.In the face of this complex sieges,Dylan has carried out multiple " breakthrough " : Based on traditional culture,he breaks through the siege of modern cultural industry and consumerism;Based on modern industrial replication technology,he breaks through the siege of traditional literary criticism and elite consciousness.The conclusion summarizes the practical significance of the event that Dylan won the Nobel Prize.The debate about Dylan is basically similar to the " Querelles des anciens et des modernes" that has appeared many times in the history of art,which is a necessary process for the evolution of concepts about art.Dylan’s success not only represents the rise of mass culture,but also represents a new possibility about art that belongs to the public.