New Literature In Perspective Of University

This dissertation focuses on the tertiary education and literary production in 1930s Beijing. It examines New Literature activities in Beijing between 1928 and 1937 from the perspective of university, when the city was called"culture city"or"university city", and literary activities were usually taken in the universities. The main aim of this study is to describe and analyze the different aspects on which the universities get involved in the imagination and reproduction of New Literature. In principle, the dissertation examines the"New Literature in perspective of university"from two aspects: first, as space of knowledge production, university produces knowledge, ideas and historical narratives about New Literature through sholarly pursuits and curriculum projects; and secondly, as"cultural community"which is composed of teachers and students, university create such institutional conditions as literary societies, journals, teacher-student ties and intercourse networks for the reproduction of New Literature.Following the conception, this dissertation is divided into two parts in principle. The first three chapters center on those more scholarly universities such as Beijing University and Tsinghua University, and discuss that what vision the kownledge production in these universities had brought about for New Literature, in which the propositions of"tradition/modern"and"Chinese/West"are dealt with. The following two chapters extend the scope to less sholarly schools like Beiping Normal University and China College, and literary youth outside the shools. They analyze the different strategies which were taken by the literary groups in different universities and the institutional conditions dominated by power behind them. By introducing the method of field, this dissertation tries to illuminate that there existed a polarized structure among the universities of Beijing in the special historical context of 1930s. People's imagination of New Literature and the way they threw themselves into it were always tightly connected with the positions they had taken in the structure.The introduction firstly clarifies briefly the relationship between university and New Literature from May Fourth on so as to put the study in a longer period, from where the main conception of the study is drawn. Then the framework and method of the study are provided, and the preceding researches concerned are summarized.Chapter 1 focuses on Beijing University and Tsinghua University and examines their literary curricula and the literary imagination they contained. Because of the trend of academic professionalization, the curricula of Chinese departments in the two schools were mostly about Guoxue (classical learning). The method was inclined to historical and textual research which were callde"scientific method", and literary appreciation was omitted. Adding the May Fourth iconoclastic"paradigm pressure", it is difficult for tradition to be a resource of New literature. Though the department heads intended to introduce New Literature into the curricula, their endeavor fell into failure. In contrast, the departments of foreign languages were based on literature itself. Their active introduction of western modernism was striking, which enlarged the resoureces of New Literature and stimulated the rediscovery of tradition. Therefore a"universalistic vision"was formed and surpassed the May Fourth iconoclastic paradigm.Chapter 2 choses the case of literary criticism, and discusses the relationship between the literary criticism and academic literary education then. The early litrary criticism of New Literature payed attention to the establishment of theory systems. The overconceptualization of literary criticism aroused much reflection. The criticism circle of 1930s Beijing appealed to put emphasis on literary works, and tried to establish"practical criticism"which dealt with concrete woks. There existed stong academic background behind such position. This chapter mainly treats of Ye Gongchao, I. A. Richards, Li Jianwu and Li Changzhi, analyzes the role their academic background had played in the formation of their criticism logic. The academic background could also be attributed to the"universalistic vision",which is put forward in the preceding chapter.In Chapter 3, new poetry is exemplified to elucidate the dialogue relationship between New Literature and the research work of scholars with New Literature background. For Hu Shi, Zhu Ziqing and the scholars around Geyao weekly (Ballad Weekly) , their object were to incorporate new poetry into the whole history of Chinaes Literature. Many intensions and gaps came out in this process. While by converting western learning into universal knowledge, scholars like Zhu Guangqian and Liang Zongdai resolved virtually the problem of communication between Chinese and West, New and Old, which had been obsessing new poetry and New Literature. This chapter also discusses the then"dushi hui"(reading poetry party), where sholars with different academic background gathered and talked with each other, making an atmosphere of amalgamation and convergence.Chapter 4 examines two kinds of literary space in then Beijing: societies and intercourse networks. Literary activities of early New Literature in campuses usually went along through societies, both Beijing University and Tsinghua University without exception. Entering into 1930s, under the pressure of academic professionalization and the government controls, and along with the change of situation of New Literature itself, student literary societies in PKU and Tsinghua declined, a kind of loose intercourse network coming out instead. While left-wing literary societies were pretty active in Beiping Normal University, China College and other schools. They emerged from underground after the December Ninth movement. However, due to the entanglements with political movements, their works were hard to enter into literary field.Chapter 5 probes the strategies and positions of two main literay groups from the perspective of field, which were identified as"academic school"and"literary youth"outside academy, specially focusing on their hierachical concepts of genre and their options on it. The academic school highlighted new poetry, while literary youth generally concentrated on novel. As the bridge between them, Shen Congwen and Xiao Qian were in charge of wenyi supplement of Ta Kungpao,thus exercising the power of genre filtration.The conclusion tries to clarify and generalize further the complicated imbroglios among academy, politics and literature, which were embodied by the thesis of"New Literature in perspective of university". It emphatically analyzes the inner relevancy among the imagination of New Literature ("universalistic vision") by the academic school, which was the mainbody on the literary scene in 1930s Beijing, their attitudes towards real-life politics and their self-orientation. However, whether success or failure, with national crisis deepening the academic school were confronted with more and more heavy pressure. They were forced to adjust their gestures, and as a result they fell apart finally.