Mouthpiece And Expounder: Evolution Of Literary Enlightenment Discourse In The New Era

Mouthpiece and Expounder: Evolution of Literary EnlightenmentDiscourse in the New EraThe present study, based on the literary works itself, attempts to search for the evolution of literary enlightenment discourse in the New Era through the transformation and collision of the two modes of expression: "mouthpiece" and "expounder". The first three chapters explore the sources of the afore-said evolution and describe its three stages of development: stage of politico-moral criticism, of spiritual-cultural retrospection, and of post-enlightenment. In reality, what we try to present are clues of distinction or emphasis because those three stages are not clearly demarcated in such short a period in the New Era.Chapters 4 to 6 focus on the study of the thematic images derived from the literary works of this era, which relates internally with the enlightenment discourse. The representation of the suffering, which is consistent with the eternal yearning for "redeeming" of the 20th century Chinese men of letters, can be categorized as the following 3 modes in the New Era: suffering from ideology, suffering from clan relationship, and suffering from existence. The emergence of the picaresque literature is closely connected with the modern being's life experience: the yearning for the spiritual homeland during the roaming being consistent with the spiritual appeal of the enlighteners. The collective migration of the "zhiqing" (refer specially to those school graduates from the Chinese cities and towns to be dispatched to and settled in the countryside and border areas during the cultural revolution [1966-1976]), the cosmopolitan expression through roaming about in youth, and the cultural vagrancy for ideal homeland constitute the three modes of picaresque literature in the New Era. The portrayal of the lunacy image is related with the rebellious tendency of the enlighteners. The abnormal, the enlightenment preachers, or the fragmentation "hinters" are characterized by their narcissism or hopelessness in psychology and fragmentation and twist in their handling of the reality.Chapter 7 turns to the characterization of the enlightenment literature. The teacher-image is a meaningful identity code connecting the traditional intellectuals with the modern enlighteners. The models of the "specimen", "master" and"professional" are the three types of the enlighteners being high up on their respective platforms in the literature of this era. From this unique perspective, we can scrutinize their spiritual status and trace the origin of the Chinese intellectual enlighteners.The enlightenment literature has been attaching importance to the search for the significance and ideological values. However, either the writers or the critics, as far as we know, ignore its aesthetic value. The production principle and research reality of philosophical literary creation alienate from literary fundamentals and make literature a set of concepts or abstract notions. To avoid this, the last chapter of this dissertation attempts to deal formally with the enlightenment literature, i.e. observing its evolution through the internal elements of narration, structure and language in order to provide a reflection for the contemporary literary production.