A Study On Maodun Literary Prize

As "the most outstanding literary prize" in contemporary China, Maodun Literary Prize not only reflects the frustrations and tortuous paths of Chinese literature in the last 30 years on a large scale, but also forms its own unique and open aesthetics with neo-realism as its main principle. Whether as a literary policy practice under thesocialist market economy or a carrier of particular literary genre------long novel,which is "a symbol of a nation's literary strength", Maodun Literary Prize is worth a meticulous and penetrating study on the basis of its innate aesthetic characteristics in order to enhance China's literary image and strength, promote its further associations with world literature and reflect ontologically on contemporary Chinese literature research in regard of policy, text and culture etc.Although various evaluations on Maodun Literary Prize coexist, a further exploration will reveal that there are mainly two extremes. On the one hand, it is overrated to an "eternity" of value and never-going-to-happen devaluation, ignoring the "historicity" of some prize winners or their internal limits. On the other hand, the literary values of those works are underrated, being regarded as political or ideological outcomes, irrelevant to "pure literature", and going towards "quick decadence" due to the marginalization of literature itself. Some other critics equate Maodun Literary Prize with "entertainment" by making sensational remarks or by distorting or deliberately hiding the truth with so-called "unveiling of inside stories". Besides, Maodun Literary Prize is not "mature" enough so far or even lacks "dialogues" of doctrinal depth due to the restrictions of methods, ideologies, visions etc.In view of the academic research deficiencies on Maodun Literary Prize, such as the lack of rationality, the absence of conscious observance of and identification with the basic academic research criterions, the non-existence of vital understanding and perception on the subject being studied, and especially the lack of conscious and comprehensive integration of literary research methods both home and abroad, ancient and modern etc., this dissertation will make a cross-text, cross-culture and cross-subject study on Maodun Literary Prize integrally and creatively on three basic principles: "restoration" of method choice and employment, "collectivity" and "dialectic criticism", so as to obtain a rich interpretation and a practical and realistic comment upon it with reference to receptive aesthetics, MHAbrams' "various coordinates of art criticism" as well as "interior research" and "exterior research" advocated by R.Wellek and A.Warren.Firstly, on the policy level. Relevant culture policies, measures and regulations have been laid down macroscopically, and together with market economy, reform and opening up policy and other social issues, they constitute the overall survival environment for contemporary literature, which we call "external policies". "Award Granting Regulations for Maodun Literary Prize" stipulated by the relevant sponsors are mapped out and perfected on the basis of six previous award granting experience, and they are the "literary field" for Maodun Literary Prize, which we call "internal policies". The word "Regulations" in this sense mainly refers to the "Revised Award Granting Regulations for Maodun Literature Prize", which cover such aspects as "award granting criterions", "award granting ins and outs", "spiritual connotations", "the priority of realistic aesthetics" and "conceptions on classics" etc. Influencing Maodun Literary Prize from every aspect and stimulating the formation of its aesthetics, these "internal policies" provide guidance innately.Secondly, on "text-aesthetics" level. It mainly refers to the fact that although Maodun Literary Prize winners are independent textually, there does exist an "intertexuality" in content and some kind of macroscopic "integrity" in artistic features, which are open instead of closed, exhaling the old and inhaling the new; dynamic instead of static, maintaining some heteromorphic balance; tending towards deeper internalization instead of presentative violation and reflecting an aesthetic pursuit for varieties and generalities at the same time. On integrity, Maodun Literary Prize mainly inclines to thematic preference, exploration of national spirits and recast of literary mainstream, including such "basic narrative factors" principally related with omniscient perspectives, positive value, neo-realism and epic conventions etc., as well as common logical features such as the basic connotations of "union", the dominance of "rationality", and the self-reflective and creative tendencies of "mirror"logic etc.------all these constitute the basis for the aesthetics in Maodun Literary Prize.On typology, folk fictions, folk consciousness, novels about reforms and their spiritual vicissitudes, historical novels and their narrative notions and Zhangjie's "literary topological transformation" from Heavy Wings to Wordless etc. all of them add modernity to aesthetics in Maodun Literary Prize. On individuality, some novels do bring Maodun Literary Prize brilliance for their outstanding literary achievements. The author of this dissertation makes an "intensive reading" into those works, for example, the profound value orientation depicted in The Common World, the deep tragic consciousness in Bailu Yuan, the significant life ethics in Everlasting Regret, the unique narrative mechanism in Zhang Juzheng, and the abundant imaginative poetics in Ah Lai's As Dust Settles etc., all of which make up and will promote the main part and basic frame of aesthetics in Maodun Literary Prize.Thirdly, on the level of comparative aesthetics. Comparing Maodun LiteraryPrize with the world's "first-class literary prize"------the Nobel Literary Prize, it willbe found that they share some perceptive approaches or commonness and have vast differences as well, for example, the deep spiritual connection between And Quiet Flows the Don and War and Men, the national image poetics in Main Street and Hibiscus Town, the intellectual images in John Christopher and Baimen Liu, the narrative isomorphous relationship between Mahafutze's so-called Trilogies of Cairo and Trilogy of Tea Men etc. Through these comparisons and contrasts, it is clear that despite its deficiencies or even flaws, Maodun Literary Prize is consistent with world literature, following and mingling with the latter and constructing its own poetic features in dialogues and communications with the latter. It is firmly believed that Maodun Literary Prize, representative of contemporary Chinese literature, will be an indispensable and necessary part in world literature despite the enormous difficulties lying ahead when it moves forward.In prospect, Maodun Literary Prize will represent Chinese language literature, humanism and classics to a fuller extent and will obtain global significance with the maturity of Chinese literature and its further integration with world literature. But at the same time, it is quite a tough duty which needs to be undertaken by continuous efforts.