The Imagination And Practices Of Literature's Popularization

There are two special phenomena in Chinese modern literature, the 'Shen Congwen phenomenon'and'Zhao Shuli phenomenon'. Both of them came from the countryside and regarded their own homeland as the origin of their literary creations. One of them was driven by the unofficial ideology and thus became famous among numerous researchers and readers, which produced the'Shen fever', whereas the other one was driven by the political ideology and promoted to the center of the mainstream literature, consequently creating'Direction of Zhao Shuli' During the process of researching, the writer discovered several similarities among their readers. Hence, their works were treated as classics which cannot be neglected by the massive, whether from the perspective of subjective choice or objective effect. This article aims at comparing the Shen's with Zhao's phenomenon under the theoretical framework of literature's popularization.The article is divided into four chapters:Literary popularization of the theoretical framework of this paper is explained in the first chapter. The Literature's Popularization is one of core issues of Chinese literatures in20th century. Since the "May Fourth Movement", literature's popularization has been one of the subjects of contemporary Chinese literatures. The literature's popularization originated from'thriving short story'and'advocating the vernacular'in the late Qing Dynasty. The civilian movement theory and the advocating vernacular movement that were promoted by Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu were a form of expression of literature's popularization under the era of "May Fourth Movement" literary revolution. Popularity in1930s tried to cultivate among the massive the revolutionary realization of proletariat. In Mao's period, literature was regarded as the weapon to unite, to indoctrinate the mass and to fight against the enemy. Undeniably, it is,to a degree difficult to implement the popularization, whether from the perspective of literary creation or literary appreciation, due to the logic paradox involving popularization and elite minority. As a matter of fact, popularization is an instrument to help elites achieve their aims to a larger degree.In Chapter II, by comparing the similarity between Shen and Zhao, the writer explains the classic significance of two popular literatures. They claimed to be rustic without high quality of educational background, and their works involved living experiences in their own homeland. They used folk narrative mode which lacks of grand narrative description of past event. They want to create a madrigal mode to help the public break away tribulations. While they were living in different creation era, the cultural background behind is similar. Both of them were thinking about the 'modern civilization' and 'civil position' that are quite important to improve the modern literature development. Their creations are the successful practices of literature popularization.Secondly, the article explores into the classic significance of Shen and Zhao in Chinese modern popular literature.Chapter â…¢ deals with the artistic ups and downs from the perspective of the acceptance of literature and research on Shen and Zhao. When Sheng's works were received by readers in city, Zhao was neglected. When Mao Zedong advocated 'the direction for workers, peasants and soldiers', Zhao had an excellent reputation among the masses. At the same time, Shen was dissociated by the era. Moreover, Shen basically still stood in dreary state during the1940s to the end of Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. From the new era to the21st century, the evaluation of their works has attained profound understanding and assessment of them, as well as the new insight into their meanings of the creations and their status in the literature history.The fourth chapter deals with the reason why the historical errors of their criticism have occurred. There are lots of similarities between Shen and Zhao's works. However, one ranks as the cultural elite, whereas the other one was promoted as the model of the massive classic by the mainstream ideology. Why is there such a disparity? The article explains it from two facets. On the one hand, they live in different times and space, and the people who live in different times have various aesthetic expectations, as well as the person who is living in different district. On the other hand, the disparity results from their aesthetic personality. Thus, they presented entirely different aesthetic personality as'vulgarness'and 'elegance'but filled with typical Chinese aesthetic flavor.The conclusion part has rendered the analysis on the impact on the popularization of chinese modern literature from the perspectives of "elegance" and "vulgarness". In spite of that they are generally identified as knowledge elites and public models, they are consciously or unconsciously involved in popular practices. They have been extending the traditional chinese culture using various forms, and thus acquired the recognition of the readers. Meanwhile they have shaped the literary creation forward, apparently or not, offering the reference for the contemporary and coming literary creation.