Russian "Red Classics" In Chinese Critical Vision

Russian "Red Classics" in this thesis refer to Russian revolutionary literary masterpieces appeared in certain period. They have been introduced into China since 1920s and influenced greatly on Chinese Left Wing cultural and literary movement. During 1950s and 1960s when the ideology of "literature serving politics" prevailed in China, these literary works were classicized. When our society comes into a new period with great changes in literary field, their classical significance has been questioned and the literary values of some works have been denied. This thesis makes a survey of the Chinese criticism on Russian "Red Classics" in the past 70 years, focusing on Mother and other three representative Russian "Red Classics", describing the process of Russian "Red Classics" from classicization to declassicization. From a particular angle the thesis inspects the development of China-Russia literary relations and the overall tendency of Chinese literary criticism.The first chapter deals with the beginning of Chinese criticism on Russian "Red Classics" from 1920s to 1940s. Three Russian novels, Mother, The Silent Don and The Cultivated Virgin Land came into the critic's vision. Mother attracted much attention, the other two novels were comparatively less discussed. They appeared as important Russian literary works and the criticism on them was multidimensional, though fighting and revolutionary inclination was obvious.The second chapter discusses the transformation of the criticism on Russian "Red Classics", including two periods, the 17 years after the establishment of new China and the Great Cultural Revolution. In the first 17 years after the establishment of new China, How The Steel Was Tempered, as well as Mother, The Silent Don, and The Cultivated Virgin Land, came into the critic's vision. Among these works, The Cultivated Virgin Land was widely noticed by Chinese critics in this period, which made the work come to its climax in the history of Chinese criticism. With the advocacy of "literature serving politics" and political impact on ideology, these Russian literary works were gilded as "Red Classics". Marks of class struggle coveredalmost all the criticism, no matter in character analyzing or theme studying. The realistic significance in class struggle of these works being emphasized, most of the researches were monosemantic. During the period of Great Cultural Revolution, with China-Russia literary relations covered with ice, M. A.Sholokhov was regarded as head of "Russian revisionist art and literature", How The Steel Was Tempered evaporated from the critical vision, Mother became the critical tool of some schemers, The Silent Don and The Cultivated Virgin Land turned abruptly from "classics" into "poisonous weeds". The criticism on Russian "Red Classics" was in sluggish condition.The third chapter focuses on the new criticism on Russian "Red Classics", mainly referring to those researches in the new period. With ideological emancipation and literary criticism returning to its normal track in 1980s, criticism on Russian "Red Classics", with new vision and new methods, came into its flourishing period. During the process of declassicization, the impurities not melted with classics were filtered, while the essence of "classics" was subverted or re-classicized.The forth chapter is the criticism on criticism, an overall reflection on Russian "Red Classics" and classics based on Chinese critical history of Russian "Red Classics", including the research on the forming and modern significance of Russian "Red Classics", the deconstruction and reconstruction of classics.