Body Writing In Chinese Contemporary Literature (1949-2006)

From the perspective of modern Western thoughts, the body is no longer viewed as an existence of pure nature and physiology, but rather an ultimate base of culture. The body has been greatly influenced by such macro things as politics, economics, ethics, aesthetics, etc. However, it also has its own inner potentiality of rebellion. Based on this understanding, the body has become a genius and complex medium, through which we can explore the relationship between culture and humans. It has also become an important cornerstone and target of modern thoughtsThis essay, with a similar approach, examines the changing relationships between literature and the body over a span of 50 years. Viewed from the perspective of the body, the changes of contemporary literature for the past half century can be roughly described as a process from the invisibility of the body to the gradual revival of the body and to the dominance of the body. As a matter of fact, this has been widely acknowledged, but the key point is how we can interpret this phenomenon of literature. This essay intends to give an interpretation from both the perspectives of cultural politics and aesthetics.From the perspective of cultural politics, this essay maintains that the violent and accelerated changes of contemporary culture are led by the special advancement of China's modernization. Each mode has its own discipline or rationale of development. As an important constituent of culture, literature expresses or to a certain degree rejects this rationale. In a culture led by politics from 1950s to 70s, an asceticism of the body discipline came into existence as a result of the combination of dramatic modern ideal and traditional culture of China's"repressing the body with the soul". Being a tamed tool for politics, literature faithfully reflected the purpose of political discipline. However, literature may sometimes subconsciously broke away from the rules and conventions.In 1980s, the affirmation of the earthly wants of the body was not only one part of the modern economic plan but also a wash-back to the autocratic politics. Literature and politics united once more to accomplish the enlightenment discipline on humans from the perspective of the body. Since 1990, the market politics and consumption politics has taken it its own responsibilities to promote man's happiness and wants. Literature, to a certain extent, has worked collaboratively in this regard, featuring the enlargement or dominance of the wants of the body. However, there have been various and complex connotations of the body literature since 1990, indicating the complexity of cultural context. The body of contemporary literature has been adapting itself on the basis of body practice in real life and ethics or ideology of literature. This essay, on the other hand, attempts to interpret the inner motive of the changes of contemporary literature from the perspective of esthetics. When a man is viewed as the existence of the body, Literature, as a"human study", therefore has an internal relation with the body. This relation, in terms of using the body as a target of writing, is the most important and stimulating target of all. As a result, contemporary literature has constantly broken through the body (the writing target) since 1980s, and has come to overthrow all the forbidden areas.The relation between the body and literature is more manifested in body as a writing subject. The inner motive of the body is the original impetus of writing, the source of creative language and thoughts. The shortcomings of contemporary literature lie in the shallow features of both the target of writing and the body of the writing subject. These features include shallow political body during the 1950s and 70s, shallow parochial body of sex and wants after 1990s. Only a few writers have touched the subconscious aspect of the body's original ambiguity and expressed man's profound secrets and enriching existence through the penetration of subconscious and cultural historic aspects.To sum up, the body writing of contemporary literature is not only a precious cultural password but also a secret trigger of aesthetics. Only from these two aspects, can the derivation of the body in contemporary literature be fully interpreted and exploited.