From Multiplicity To Unicity

The prose in China's liberated area" was of particular complexity and importance in the 20th century history of Chinese prose. However, no theoretical monographs have ever made an integrative and systematic study of the genre in a way of broad cross-reference. In this sense, writing a theoretical monograph should be a difficult and urgent task that challenges the scholarship. Due to its pioneering nature and its theoretical significance, I've mustered up courage to take it as my study in finishing my doctoral dissertation. ?On the basis of my access to reliable first-hand materials and in the light of historical theories, I've tried in this dissertation to integrate the study of the reportage, prose and essay written in China's liberated area by making a comprehensive comparison. This dissertation has taken as the object of study the prose in China's liberated area, including those written in Soviet Area of North Shan'xi when China Literature and Art Association was set up, those in the border areas and the democratic bases during Anti-Japanese War up to the time when the whole mainland was liberated.This dissertation attempts to solve some difficult points in study and to explore the gap in the research so as to give a more accurate picture of what concerns "literature in the liberated area": the environment for the existence of the prose and the establishment of the norm for the prose; the prosperity and hiatus of the reportage; the complicated evolution of the essay; the art destiny of the prose writers Dingling, He Qifang; the profound influence of the rise and decline of the prose. In this way, the forms of the prose creation, their underlying values and their derived features will be revealed; their aesthetic formula and influence will be judged; the spiritual and cultural psychology and mental state of a generation of the intellectuals will be analyzed; and the profound historical influence of their growth and decline will be summed up.