"Socialism" And "Nature"

There was a historical impulse within Chinese socialist practice, actualization of which was designated by the words or expressions such as "new man", "reconstruction" and "to change customs and habits" etc. However, this dissertation focuses on the problematic which could be stated as "socialism and nature". To state it concretely, this dissertation attempts to show the dialectics between "history" and "nature" within Chinese socialist practice:on the one hand, socialist practice regarded many ideas, institutions and life-styles which had been considered as "natural" as the objects to transcend and overcome; on the other hand, it had a tendency to elevate new man, new institution and new life-world to the level of "nature", i.e. a tendency to universalize. This practice not only referred to the reconstruction of meaning of images/representations of outer nature, but also had a close relationship with transforming human"s inner nature or humanity and constructing "second nature" that had ethical substance. After accomplishing socialist reconstruction (esp. reconstruction of ownership) on a basic level in the middle stage of 1950s, Chinese socialist practice proceeded to reconstruct outer and inner nature, in which practices of art and aesthetic discourses played a pivotal role. It is significant to point out that these practices of art and aesthetics reflected possibilities and difficulties of self-affirmation of new life-world and political community. Hence, they are the concrete objects of this dissertation.Chapter one tries to discuss the interaction between "politics" and "landscape"/Shan Shui by means of the issues of reconstruction of Chinese painting and inheritance of national legacy since 1950s, i.e. to pursue how new political significance penetrated into representations of nature and what was the relationship between "turning over" of working class and establishment of People's Republic of China and reconstruction of Chinese landscape painting. In this context, reconstruction of world-view could be read as transformation of intuition of "world". This process was presented as "discovery" of "socialist landscape" or image of nature within new political body. We could say the practice of new Chinese landscape painting grasped the formation of new "visual world" which provided a necessary context to understand socialist landscape within other medium. Zhou Libo's Shanxiang Jubian could be regarded as a novel which paid unusual attention to "landscape" or scenery within the context of novels about agricultural cooperativization. On the one hand, its representation of scenery related to the political urge that society should reconcile with nature ("turning over of the world"). On the other hand, the mechanism of "observation" resulting from realistic aesthetics brought about a unique presentation of scenery and custom in the countryside, which could not be simply interpreted as "description of surroundings" or "empathization of subject" but showed an attitude toward the practice of agricultural cooperativization by mediation of "form". Here, "scenery" had a relationship with irreducible co-existence of the old and the new, which showed a sort of rethinking about the natural body of socialist practice:it should recover the ability of solacing of life-world. It was the presentation of mute scenery which resisted the total penetration of narrative voice that formalized this implication. However, with deployment of socialist practice, the social move of the youth made "nature" reappeared. Within this context, the mechanism of observation could not respond to the urge of transforming "outer" subject-position into "inner" identity of collectivity. As an educational-formation drama with universal significance, Chao Yanggou brought a new sort of image of nature:the beautiful image of nature had been negated by working at first, and then it reappeared at a higher level through the heroine's memory of working and ethical world. According to the temporary inefficiency of "political persuasion", this kind of "humanized nature" offered a sort of aesthetic solution and crystallized a sort of collective experience. This chapter attempts to show the process of reconstruction of meaning of representation of nature under the condition of socialism.Chapter two first answers why Chinese debates on aesthetics appeared in 1950s and why the objectivity of beauty was emphasized in the debates:these issues referred to the establishment of universality of socialism on higher level (not only "good" but also "beautiful"). In this context, the issue of "natural beauty" meant the deepening of objective beauty, which also responded to the problem that chapter one put forward: reconstruction of the meaning of nature. However, the statement of "natural beauty" put forward by every faction of the debates presented different concerns. On the one hand, the natural beauty beyond history emphasized by Cai Yi implied the problem of "common sense", i.e. implying the natural facet within society. On the other hand, Zhu Guangqian sustained aesthetic subjectivity in his aesthetic discourse although he actively involved in self-reconstructing, which showed its trace in his attitude to nature and natural beauty. What's at stake is that the ideologized natural beauty stated by Zhu connected with mediation of "culture". In addition, Li Zehou constructed the dialectical relationship between nature and history by virtue of the model of Marxist political economy, and elevated the problem of natural beauty to a new level. In this respect, nature gained an inner relationship with socialist practice. At the same time, Li's construction also answered the issue of "culture" within natural beauty. In his opinion, natural beauty pointed to liberation of working class and finally to reconstruction of structure of time of production. Hence, Li juxtaposed natural beauty and communist society. However, Li's natural beauty related to long-term sediment, even the "evolution" of sense of human being. Then, it was difficult to respond the urge of socialist practice to reconstruct inner nature in the present. In this regard, the problematic of "novelty" and "beauty" appeared. Yao Wenyuan's engagement in debates on aesthetics grasped this urge. In the context of "Great Leap Forward", Yao brought selfless work into aesthetic filed. Then, novelty, beauty and new working subject constructed a relationship. In the early stage of 1960s, Zhu Guangqian attempted to demonstrate working as human's natural need within the context of aesthetic theory, which gave rise to radical criticism of the discussants supporting objective beauty. The pivot of this debate was the division of labor and the natural limitation of working subject. This chapter regards the debates on labor-art and the vision of working subject presented by practices of "Great Leap Forward" as two necessary moments of historical experience.Chapter three discusses practices of art of working class (new mural and new folk song) in "the Great Leap Forward Movement" by right of "cultural revolution" which attempted to overcome the subalternity of working class. It is pertinent to grasp the rhetoric of conquering "nature " of these practices within concrete historical context and political appeal and to rethink their political implication not so much from the perspective of "work" as from the perspective of "production". On the one hand, practices of art in the Great Leap Forward movement certainly presented the exaggerated scene of working and working subject. On the other hand, working class constructed the historical moment to overcome division and hierarchy of labor by virtue of participating in the practices of art which had a close relationship with working within the historical atmosphere in which socialism began to transit into communism. To some extent, the "turgid" characteristic of practices of art in the Great Leap Forward movement derived from the rhetoric of conquering nature or "necessity". We should recognize the suture of reality, ideal and wish within these practices of art unmistakably gave rise to a sort of "illusion", but the exaggerated rhetoric also brought about a possibility to overcome this illusion. In the process of conquering nature by means of imagination, working class opened a moment of formation of subjectivity----the coming of "I" or "We". Through analyzing the characteristics of visualization or the difficulty to visualize of new folk song and new mural, we could catch a sort of unstable and temporary production of new inner nature, which was not only the formalization of exaggerated working subject but also the presence of liberty within the limitation of nature.When the Great Leap Forward movement began to decline, socialist practice still tried to maintain its positive energy, i.e. to conceive a figure with more stable inner nature and spontaneity. Hence, chapter four turned to the practice of new comical movies in the late stage of 1950 and early stage of 1960s, the main issues of which were as fellows:new man or the higher type of human as comical subject and the new sort of laughter. The comical subject had a stable inner nature and didn't act in a situation of working and revolutionary struggle. The debate caused by two "eulogistic comedies"----Jintian Wo Xiuxillt's My Day Off and Wuduo Jinhua/Five Golden Flowers focused on two issues:the classification of comedy and the contradiction within comedy, which showed political disagreement within aesthetics. The pursuit of total and real man conceived by "socialist realism" could not come to terms with the comical figure. This chapter puts comical subject into the context of Hegel's aesthetics and its interpretation to study the inner connection between new man and comical subject. In eulogistic comedies, new man's moral behavior had a comical appearance and his laughability derived from a "crack" within self-sufficient life. i.e. from the part of "not only human". However, it is debatable whether the laughter caused by new man was a new sort of laughter. This aporia highlighted a complicated situation. On the one hand, comedy had its borderline, that is to say, the comical atmosphere heavily relied on alleviation of contradiction or conflict, trivial everydayness and old "natural" elements----love and family etc. On the other hand, the spectators found unnaturalness of comical figures which resulted in laughability. Comical figure could not get rid of its subjectivity and comical experience did not really enter into reconstruction of "second nature". In this sense, eulogistic comedies pointed to a unique historical moment. In the radical transformation of history, the "crack" which was implied by new comedy transformed into contradiction. The reconstruction of out/inner nature would show other features, in which a series of issues brought by practices of art and aesthetic discourses in 1950-60s----natural beauty, working, culture, productive/leisure time, laughter and comical experience would be rewritten or changed.