The Four Major Supplements And May 4th New Literature

The occurrence, development and success of the May 4th New Literature is the integration of many factors. Among these factors, the media's power can not be ignored. The role of the Four Major Supplements (FMS) is not replaced among the medium which disseminates the new literature. Literary historian Sima Changfeng even say:without these several supplements' support and struggling, the climax of new literary movement would not come and even aborted in the process. However, the relation between the FMS and the May 4th New Literature has not been studied. This thesis mainly analyses three aspects to study the relation between the FMS and May 4 New Literature in order to make up for the field's vacancy which are the relation between the FMS and the creation of new literature public space, the relation between the FMS and new literature main body breed, the relation between the FMS and the new literary style formation. This thesis consists of four chapters:The first chapter illustrates the quick rise of the FMS in the New Culture Movement. Chinese newspaper supplement has been a popular literary supplement since the date of its birth. During the period of the May 4th Movement, under the influence of "New Youth", supplements of newspaper began to change and produce the FMS --"Morning News" supplement " the report of current affairs" supplement, "China daily" supplement, "Beijing News" supplement. The FMS broke the layout dominated by the popular literary supplement and make itself being part of elite culture, which play a undeniable role.The second chapter discusses the relation between the FMS and the creation of new literature public space. New literature legitimating was established on the new literature's public space and new literature's growth also depended on a good public space. This thesis which is based on the Habermas' theory of the Public Sphere postulates the conception of the new culture new literature public space. In other words, it takes a critical attitude to discuss this point, which comprises providing a public forum and also includes the discussion of the discourse space. This paper confirms the opinion that the establishment of "New Youth" indicated the establishment of new cultural public space. The FMS played an important role because of the long time propagation, high coverage, and extensive participation. The FMS become an important forum and new criticism space for the new culture, which provided a strong guarantee for new literature's healthy developmentThe third chapter elaborates the relation between the FMS and the cultivation of the new literature's subject. From the creation subject, the FMS not only fostered countless new literary writers for May 4th New Literature, but also become the important field of many famous writers. Bing Xin, Guo Moruo, Liang Shiqiu, Xu Yu, Xu Qinwen, Shen Congwen walked to the literary from the FMS. Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, Xu Zhimo. Ye Shengtao and other famous writers published a large number of works in the FMS. From the reception subject, the FMS translated and introduced a number of foreign literature and foreign literature theory, which offered readers rich nourishment. At the same time, the FMS provided a broad platform for publishing new literary works, getting closer the distance between the reader and the new literature. In addition, the FMS popularized the knowledge of new literature's theory about the aspects of explanation and discussion of the new literature theory.The fourth chapter focuses on the relationship between the FMS and the arising of the new literature genres. Thanks to its comprehensiveness, the FMS turned out to be an experimental and drill field for all kinds of new literature genres. As far as the impact on the four major new literature genres (poetries, novels, proses, dramas) is concerned, no other medium could serve as a counterpart as the FMS. In the realm of poetry writing, the new literature groups in 1920s, including Realism, Romanticism, Lakeside, Little Poetry, Versification, Symbolism, had their fingerprints on the FMS. In the realm of novel writing, a number of "problem novels", which were the inceptive outcome of the new literature, were published right on the FMS. Meanwhile, the FMS rendered certain support to the development of the realism novels and subjective novels. In the realm of prose writing, a great deal of complementary and artistic proses were published in the FMS, and many works of prose masters, such as Lu Xu, Zhou Zuoren, Bin Xin, Xu Zhimo, were made known. Hence, the FMS contributed considerably to the proliferation of "May 4th Proses". In the realm of drama writing, despite the fact that the dramas were not as well developed as the poetries, novels and proses in 1920s, the FMS still provided strong support to the new drama writing. Furthermore, a large number of theoretical discussions on poems, novels, proses and dramas appeared in the FMS and laid a theoretical foundation for the maturation of the genres of poetries, novels, proses and dramas.In conclusion, the FMS played a unique and important role in the arising and development of the May 4 new literature.