Modernity And Chinese Romantic Thoughts In The 20^th Century

For a long time, the academia of China has suffered influences from artistic theories of Russia, which confuses the literary trends with the artistic methods by taking literary trends as the product of the artistic methods. Under the direction of this false theory, romanticism has been misread, so that Chinese Romanticism thought has been ignored and misjudged. The theory of Modernity discovers the nature of the literary trends, which has its special historical definition as the literary responses to the Modernity. My thesis is an attempt to redefine the literary trends from the point of view of the Modernity. On this base I have lucubrated over the development of Romanticism thoughts in modern and contemporary Chinese literature.The thesis discusses the questions above in four parts. The first part corrects the long-term misleading of the theory of artistic methods and unveils the internal relationship between the Modernity and the literary trends on the base of the theory of Modernity. Thus it defined the essential nature of Romanticism, which is the first reflection on the Modernity. It analyses the genesic roots and temperaments of the Romanticisms in Europe (England, German and France), and explores the historical source, incorporeal meaning, types and the connotations of the era. At last, the first part summarizes the specific characters in Western Romanticism. All of this can give a frame of reference for studying Chinese Romanticism literature.The second, third, and fourth part reviews the Romanticism literature thoughts in China of 1920s-30s, 1940s and the New Period, and draws the outline of the development of Romanticism in China. Then the three parts unveils the differences from the Western's and the different characters in each era. At last, the conclusion summarizes the historical experience, general character and meaning of Romanticism thought in the history of Chinese literature.