A Study Of Village In August From The Perspective Of The Debate On “Two Slogans”

Village in August is a left-wing anti-Japanese war novel written by Xiao Jun.It was interpreted and criticized by the two opposing camps represented by “Two Slogans”-“national defense literature” and “mass literature” proposed before and after the dissolution of the League of Left-Wing Writers.In fact,this novel is not simply about the anti-Japanese war,nor is it written solely from a nationalist perspective.It is composed from a left-wing internationalist perspective of anti-imperialism and revolution,uniting the weak and underprivileged peoples of the world to resist foreign fascists on the one hand and local exploiters on the other.This thesis reveals the internationalist ideological idea of Village in August in the view of the debate on “Two Slogans”,clarifies the “misinterpretation” in recent years of this anti-Japanese war novel from a nationalist angle,and re-examines its significance to the understanding of left-wing anti-Japanese war literature.The five major chapters of the thesis are: the introduction,three chapters in the main body,and the conclusion.The introduction presents the object of the study and the current state of research at home and abroad,explaining the basis of the thesis and organizes the research ideas and thoughts of the thesis.The first chapter describes how Village in August depicts the resistance of the People’s Revolutionary Army against the foreign invaders and the reality of the northeastern countryside being invaded by Japan,unveiling how the anti-Japanese struggle of the People’s Revolutionary Army was different from armies of volunteers.It pays special attention to the awakening of the oppressed.Based on this,there are other reasons why Village in August was criticized by Dike(Pen Name)who followed the slogan of “national defense literature” other than its ineffective representation of the anti-Japanese struggle.The second chapter reveals how Village in August is written to resist local oppression.It presents the struggle between the revolutionary army and the local landlords,analyzing how the novel mirrors the most deprivileged soldiers’ hatred of class oppression and the author’s reflection on male power.It is then argued that,in addition to the anti-Japanese theme,Village in August also has another theme-resistance to local oppression,which reflects the approach of “mass literature of national revolutionary” and is therefore criticized by Dike from the perspective of“national defense literature”.The third chapter focuses on the internationalist logic of both internal and external resistance of Village in August.It reveals how the internationalist ideology of the slogan “mass literature of national revolution” is displayed in Village in August.It also explores the ideal of the unification of the oppressed to resist both internal and external oppressions,and the reality that it would be a mission impossible without a united front.In this way,the debate over “Two Slogans” is examined in the context of how Village in August,as a representative work of “mass literature of national revolution” differs from “defense literature”.The case study of Village in August helps to show that compared with “national defense literature”,“mass literature of national revolution” incorporates a new theme of the resistance to local oppression in addition to the common one of resistance against Japanese Aggression.The conclusion summarizes the dual-resistance nature of “anti-imperialism”and “anti-feudalism” in the slogan of “mass literature of national revolution”embodied in Village in August.Both the logic of internal and external resistance mirrored by this book and Lu Xun’s vindication of it have demonstrated the true meaning of “mass literature of national revolution” in a way that is clearer and truer than the theoretical debate itself.