1980S’Novels And The Problem Of The Youth

Taking the event of "Pan Xiao discussion" as the starting point, this thesis investigates how to construct the images of the youth in the1980s’ literature especially novel creations and the transforming process. Although "Pan Xiao discussion" is a social event, it has also significance in terms of literary culture. The novel creation in the1980s, to some extent, actually answers and responds to the question presented by "Pan Xiao discussion", given the close relation between the1980s’literature and social practices. That is, how to rebuild the image of youth as social subject after the disillusionment of ideals and faith caused by the "Cultural Revolution".As for this issue, people (such as the elderly authors) have relatively different opinions. Those "zhiqing authors"(or the educated youth authors) generally with an experience of joining the "Red Guards", however, exert to write a history through novel creation in honor of their youth and think over the futures of their generation. These different narrations composed the mottle and rich appearance of novels in the1980s. This thesis, therefore, aims to show the complex process and offer feasible approaches and perspectives to retrospect1980s’literature at present.In the1980s, narratives about the youth transformed from the subject by "uncle’s telling" to" our telling", and experienced the reconstruction and evolution of the youth subjectivity. The youth in the "Scar Literature" and "Reflective Writing" were created as the images of being suspected and brought to trial, for they were twisted with the history of "Red Guards" movement. In the reform narration they emerged as very complex images, suspected for one thing and needed by the modernization for another, which was related to different objects of reforming. When the reform contended with the chaos caused by the "Cultural Revolution", the youth were suspected, and when the reform struggled with the tradition, the youth were probably employed for promoting the reform.In some degree, the Novels on "zhiqing" may be considered as a group practice of the youth writing themselves, which was continued and deepened in "the Root seeking literature". And then in the so-called "Chinese Modernist Novels", the youth showed a distinctive individual consciousness and rebellious attitude on the one hand, and seemed to be very confused on the other hand:they had their pursuits but did not know what they were, which, in some sense, determined the youth to be the "intermediate" role in the history. It has been obviously proved by the following novels called "the New Realism" and Wang Shuo’s novels.The thesis consists of six chapters on the basis of the above understanding.The first chapter, actually a preface including four sections, mainly discusses that youth were raised as a literary or social problem and the modernity characteristics reflected in the event of "Pan Xiao discuss". In fact, the problem represented by the category of youth was also the one China and the west were both confronted with throughout the twentieth century. Hence, it can be said that the full development of the problem in China indicates the development of Chinese modernity.The second chapter deals with the problem of subjectivity in the1980s’ novel creation, and the phenomenon of the intergenerational difference. In the1980s, there formed three groups of writers such as "Youpai Authors"、"Zhi Qing Authors"and "Huixiang Authors" about the youth narrative. These different groups had their different styles owing to different identities, statuses and experiences. Specifically, the "Youpai Authors" and "Zhi Qing Authors"had their different understandings on the problems of the" root" identification and how to" find" it, although they had the similar’trend to "Root-seeking". Similarly, the "Zhi Qing Authors" couldn’t agree with "Huixiang Authors" on the issue of the urban/rural area imagination.From chapter three to chapter five, the thesis analyzes the problem of the youth in the1980s’novels from three aspects, namely the narrative of literature in the entanglement between the real and the history, the way of imaging the youth and its variability, and the way to discuss the change of the movements in the1980s’ novels taking youth as its methodology.The thesis comes to a conclusion in chapter six. I’d like to discuss the new challenge and problem after establishment of the subjectivity of the youth. Since the late1980s, individualism in the youth identity was highlighted with the acceleration of the process of globalization in China and the development of the reformation. Ironically, it unexpectedly made full preparations for just the landing of globalization in China when the discourse of individualism got rid of the collective discourse or ideology discourse:the individual existence of freedom was integrated into a new diversity appearance in the era of globalization. It seemed to be diversification and tendency to differentiation for the Youth identity since the later1980s. From this point of view, the discussion on" humanistic spirit" in the early1990’s actually repeated itself in another context, and answered the discussion on "meaning of life" in the early1980s.