| In Mao Dun's literary career, the decade from 1928 to 1937 shows prominence of his conceptualization of the ideas of the "Left-wing Literature". However, his literary ideas were not given enough credit at that time, which was partly caused by the contemporary theorists' unfavorable treatments of him. Therefore, through investigating the major debates in which Mao Dun joined, this dissertation mainly concerns his literary stances and practices of the construction of the "Left-wing Literature".The first chapter provides an overview of the debates of "Revolutionary Literature". Judging from the facts that Mao Dun was long affiliated with the Literary Association and served as a veteran member of the Communist party, it is safely assumed that he was an active adherent of the "Revolutionary Literature". On the other hand, as the first major novelist and literary theorist and translator, he demonstrated his unique grasp of "Revolutionary Literature" by means of establishing his indigenous "self-descriptive" mode of literary criticism. He integrated the "defensive" practice which was in response to leftist writers' criticism with the "descriptive" strategy which was employed to reflect on his own works.The following chapter is designed to pinpoint the difficulties which Mao Dun had confronted after the formation of the League of Left-wing Writers. During this period, the leftist writers had great difficulties in amending the line of "Revolutionary Literature" and "Proletarian Literature" and in fostering and developing the "Left-wing Literature". In conjunction with that, Mao Dun consciously dissociated himself from the internal rivalry and the dissensions among the revolutionary camps, and managed to envision a new future for the "Left-wing Literature".The third chapter illustrates that the propaganda of "Popularization of the Masses'Literature and Arts" were closely correlated to leftist writers' revolutionary agenda of reforming literature. Despite the diverse political imaginations of "the masses", the Left-wing League reached to some degree a similar recognition of "the masses". Mao Dun's definition of "masses" nonetheless differed from the mainstream "leftist discourse" from the beginning of his advocacy of "Proletarian art" in 1925, and continuously influenced his leftist literary viewpoints. The fourth chapter discusses the heated discourses raised from the "Debate on Literary Liberty". Mao Dun played a crucial role in strategically adopting "literary method" to maintain his stance. His flexible responses, on the other hand, manifested the leftist writers' dilemma in maintaining political positions and in pursuing artistic freedom.The fifth chapter tackles the complexity between the "Two Slogans," i.e. Literature for National Defense and Mass Literature for the National Revolution and War. Whatever the debates of the "Two Slogans" were imbued with, in the eyes of Mao Dun and his cohort of the Literature Monthly, they were de facto debates over "literature" per se with primary concerns on literary "creation and criticism" and literary "theory and practice". In that sense, examinations of the Mao Dun's articles published in the Literature Monthly provide a wider scope of his multiple identities such as a creative writer, a critical theorist in various perspectives, etc.The last chapter concludes with Mao Dun's endeavors to confront the drawbacks of the leftist literary world. He proposed "literary method" and "the image of novels" to minimize the degeneration within the literary arena. However, the majority of fictionists were excessively ridden by the leftist attitudes for the purpose of achieving individual distinction, betraying Mao Dun's strenuous efforts. Such discrepancy between reality and ideal he witnessed also affected his conceptualization and construction of the "Left-wing Literature".
|
PDF Full Text Request