The Literary Thoughts Of Marx & Engels And European Literature

With regards to the reality of Marx and Engels'classics and by means of a systematic scrutiny of literary resources in classic texts, the present dissertation addresses three issues:first, a positivistic examination of the condition of literary resources existing in classic texts; second, a practical inquiry on the manners, approaches, processes and effects in Marxist appropriation of literary resources; third, an influence study on the heuristic value of the literary resources in Marx and Engels'classics for the further development of literary theories in China's context.Introduction focuses on current evolution of Marx and Engels'literary theories by inspecting their insights and blindness on the basis of the major orientation of Marx and Engels'literary thoughts. This part further elucidates the significance, contents, working methods and main objectives of the study, based on a meticulous analysis of the fundamentalist and dogmatic understandings, mechanical research paradigms, provincial research horizons, and especially literal interpretation and even decontextualized distortion of Marx and Engels'literary theory.Part One approaches Marx and Engels'literary practice and its relation to European literature. As a literature lover in adolescence and a literary enthusiast in youth, Marx composed a great number of poems, fictions and plays, characterized by romantic idealism. Engels'literary practice was inspired by Junges Deutschland during literary romanticism. For all the differences in family background and adolescent experience, Marx and Engels had much in common in approaching literature. Although the early works by Engels were suffused with romantic passion, a realistic inclination loomed large due to individual differences and folk literary elements. As a kind of literary resource, their literary practice drew largely on the themes, images, plots, and characters from European literature in general and literary romanticism in particular, and forged their distinction by Marx's integrating idealism in romantic irony and Engels'free spirit in folk wisdom. The literary practice of Marx and Engels represents their grand shift from romanticism to realism in conceptual formation.Part Two concentrates on the condition and type, value and role of literary citation in Marx and Engels'classic texts. Literary citation is the immediate evidence of the use of literary resources by Marx and Engels and their lifelong love for literature. There are extensive citations of literature in their theoretic writings, ranging from literary phenomena since ancient Greek literature in horizon to mythology, folk tale, poetry, fiction, and play in genre. A diachronic examination of literary citation in Marxist works discloses not only its general condition but the choices made according to personal interests and theoretic needs. The literary citation employed in Marx and Engels'classics features in its adroitness, pertinence and succinctness. The value and role of literary citation by Marx and Engels lie in documentary evidence, social criticism and literary rhetoric.Part Three investigates the use of literary resources by Marx and Engels in a perspective of cultural critique. Literary resources prove to be not only the major materials for their cultural critique, but also the effective means to present their political, philosophical, and literary ideas. The lifelong theoretical practice of Marx and Engels was imbued with critical spirit of which cultural critique was an integral part, as represented in critique of "reactionary romanticism", "young Hegelians", and "real socialism". Their critique of romanticism is objective and dialectic. For all their sharp and even emotional criticism on romanticism, they endorsed no general negation. Their critique was merely aimed at the reactionary political matter expressed in romantic form, i. e. "reactionary romanticism", whereas they showed full affirmation of revolutionary romanticism. By critique of Les mysteres de Paris and young Hegelians, Marx aimed at a full account of young Hegelians and a complete sorting of his own ideas. By integrating literary polemics in philosophical polemics, Marx illustrated such realist conceptions as the shaping of vivid "authentic noncritical" imagery, and character conforming to humanity. Critique of "real socialism" was launched by Engels in his treatises like "Real Socialists and "German Socialism in Poetry and Prose". It is just through their careful anatomy of the class nature and deception in "real socialists ", Marx and Engels illustrated their ideas about realism, literary critical criteria, and critical methodology, and their belief that art and literature should exalt the revolutionary proletariat.Part Four explores the use of literary resources by Marx and Engels in a perspective of the style of literary criticism. The style of literary criticism is another valid means for using literary resources. Rare as their systematic literary criticism in a strict sense was, they made wonderful literary assessment in elucidating their political and philosophical ideas. In a broad sense of literary criticism, the critical writings scattered in Marx and Engels'classic texts fall into three distinct forms:random notes, treatises, and epistolary. Random notes here refer to instantaneous and fragmentary reviews on certain literary facts and materials cited in other texts, often in the form of notes about authors and works. It is the most common form of criticism, also a major characteristic. Literary treatise is the most prudent form of literary criticism with independent objects, rigorous logic, and full argument including comments on authors and works. Epistolaries is a form with high density of literary ideas. Marx and Engels'correpondences " To Ferdinand Lassalle ", Engels'" To Minna Kautsky " and " To Margaret Harkness " prove to be classics. The three forms of literary criticism mentions above not only induced a series of major literary notions, propositions and categories, but also provided a practical basis for critical criteria and methods.Conclusion focuses on the current value of literary resources in Marx and Engels'classics. Writings by Marx and Engels abound in literary resources. Literature, especially European literature, both functions as the reality for Marx and Engels'literary ideas and as the immediate object for review on its practical use. Compared with social, philosophical, aesthetic, and human basis, literary basis is the innermost and deepest for the generation of Marx and Engels' literary thoughts. Generally speaking, literature is the basis that grounds Marxist theory, an important evidence that embodies its practical characters, an objective reference for its literary perspective and a major means for rereading Marx. It suggest that, in today's context of globalization, exploitation of literary resources in Marx and Engels'literary theory proves a significant way for innovating Marx and Engels'literary study and constructing contemporary Marx and Engels'literary theory. Further study on literary resources and constructive rereading Marx are of great practical and methodological value for broadening the horizon of Marx and Engels'literary research and settling literary problems in our complex context.