The Magazine “New World” And Russian Literature Of The 1950-1960s

As a comprehensive magazine that accommodates literary,scientific and political opinions,“New World” attracted attention in Soviet literary community when it was first published.Since its first issue,the magazine has been aimed to promote the new socialist culture.As the witness of many great works,it has drawn the attention of scholars at home and abroad owing to its high artistic standards,diverse genres and distinctive features of its published works.At present,domestic and foreign research on “New World” mainly focuses on the three aspects,its development history,important works published,editors-in-chief of the magazine and their creative research and translation;however,few if any efforts have been made to explore its role in the development of Soviet literature in the 1950 s and 1960 s from the perspective of literary criticism.In view of this,this thesis aims to examine the important works published during the peak development period(1950s and 1960s)of this magazine and their influence on the whole literary development.The study contributes to the extant literature in that it centers on a comprehensive and systematic study of three aspects of the magazine “New World” in the 1950 s and 1960 s,namely,overcoming the “conflictfree theory,” restoring Realism and Humanitarian traditions and its influence and role on the literary development from a literary criticism perspective.First of all,the study briefly analyzes the development history of the magazine,the social environment in the 1950 s and 1960 s,and the significant works published by the magazine.The 1950 s and 1960 s are considered as a very important period for Soviet literary community.With the death of Stalin and the succession of Khrushchev,Soviet literature entered a new period of development,and “New World” ushered in its heyday.A large number of works that had previously been banned from being published in magazines were competing for publication(such as Solzhenitsyn’s work “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” etc.);and the literary style at that time was completely new.Then,the study focuses on the influences of the important works published by “New World” and of the editors-in-chief of the magazine on the development of Soviet literature.The editors-in-chief of the magazine during this period were Twardowski(1950-1954,1958-1970)and Simonov(1954-1958).In the Russian literature of the 1950 s and 1960 s,relying on his dual roles as both a literary critic and editor-in-chief,Tvaldowski made great efforts to restore the Realism and Humanitarian traditions in Soviet literary community,and influenced the literary development to some extent.It is especially worth mentioning that during the Ottepel,the Soviet literary world formed two camps,i.e.liberals and conservatives with “New World” and “October” as respective core.The two magazines had fierce debates on such issues as literary and artistic creation methods,aesthetic standards and literature ideological trends,which had an important impact on the development of Soviet literature.Besides,the study analyzes the Soviet readers’ evaluation on and attitude towards the important works published in “New World” from the perspective of letters from readers.It was under the influence of these works that social public opinion in the Soviet Union has undergone a major change——ordinary readers’ spiritual world has become more complete,and their ideological and moral consciousness has been further improved.Finally,the study gives a summary of the basic viewpoints of the thesis,pointing out that “New World” was not only a witness to many great works during the Ottepel of the Soviet Union,but also an important position for propagating the literary traditions of Realism and Humanitarian,constituting a pioneer of social changes.This magazine,billed as “democratic,” kicked off the era of new literature.