The Discourse Of Reason And The Spirit Of Modern Chinese Literature

Reason remains to be a key word in the history of modern Chinese literature.The theoretical analysis and literary practice based on reason have constituted a traceable and consecutive discourse system,that is,the discourse of reason.The construction of this essential discourse is a process which reveals the aesthetic character and value judgment of modern Chinese literature and which effectively and constructively defines its creation dynamics,mechanism and subject matter.In close connection with the literary creation,Reason is a widely used concept in the modern Chinese literary study.The introduction of the reason concept into the study of literature is an embodiment of the intensification of the study of modern Chinese literature.Nevertheless,a review of the former studies on modern Chinese literature based on the reason spirit betrays such problems as vague concept,self-contradictory logic,narrow vision of field and rigid way of thinking.Thus,this dissertation focuses on the key word reason which has complex and close connection with the modern Chinese literature.It makes an overall investigation into the spirit of reason of modern Chinese literature by the use of empirical method and discourse analysis and in the tense structure of referential meaning and evaluative meaning of Reason.This dissertation consists of six chapters.The introduction of this dissertation includes origin of choosing the topic and its significance,problems and methods,the establishment of logic basis.It retraces the development of the reason discourse in the modern Chinese literature and points out the inadequacy in the former studies on reason and provides a principal framework for investigating modern Chinese literature.This dissertation maintains that the spirit of reason should be approached from the correlation of literature and Reason and that Rationality is outside the confines of literature.This not only corrects the mistakes in the literary circle of rationalizing the spirit of reason of modern Chinese literature but also provides a theoretical base for illustrating this spirit.The spirit of reason of modern Chinese literature includes the following main ideas:literature has the function of providing profound thoughts;literature provides the Utopia to keep up ideals for humankind.We can grasp the connotation of the spirit of reason of modern Chinese literature and discover and summarize the law of modern Chinese literature to provide nutrition for the literary creation only within the legitimate confines of these main ideas.By connecting the concept reason in western philosophy with Li in the traditional Chinese philosophy,by investigating the discourse practice of the word reason and the details of Reason from syntactic and pragmatic levels,the chapters from three to six probe the spirit of reason in the modern Chinese literature.First,the dissertation begins with the function of literature.It focuses on Wangguowei,Zhou brothers,the early Creation Society to probe the spirit of reason reflected in the Kantian disinterestedness of modern Chinese literature.Wangguowei opposes the utilitarianism of literature while emphasizing its independence.He regards literature as the legitimate province of the metaphysics of humankind,thus his understanding of literature has affinities with the transcendence and ascendancy of reason.This makes modern Chinese literature possess a spirit of reason with transcendence as its characteristic when it also has the rationality impulse.Wang's effort in theory makes historical turn in the ideas of modern Chinese literature.That is to say,his aesthetics ushers in a reason dimension for modern Chinese literature.When they studied in Japan,both Luxun and Zhou zuoren's outlook on literature have exhibited salient feature of attaching importance to the independence and transcendence of literature.Under the unified idea of nationalism,their thoughts have also implies the rational tendency of seeking utilitarianism for literature.In the process of literature revolution,they interact with each other in their literary stance by way of ideological revolution. Meanwhile,their outlook on literature reshapes because of the tension between the spirit of reason and rational impulse,resulting in an unbridgeable theoretical gap.In 1920s and 1930s,Luxun's outlook on literature increasingly exhibits a strong rational impulse wheras Zhou's puts more and more emphasis on the spirit of reason of literature,that is, its transcendence and independence.As a result,they follow contrary path in their respective outlook on literature.Judging from the early aesthetic tendency of the Creation Society,the former assertion by the literary circle that the outlook of this Society is anti-reason is simple and hasty. As a matter of fact,the major members of this society,Guo moruo, Chengfangwu,Yudafu have manifested the spirit of reason in their aesthetic tendencies.Their spirit of reason can also be embodied in the deep relationship between their disinterestedness and Kantian interPretation paradox.Nevertheless,owing to the influence of scientific reason and the subjective obstinacy in their literary thoughts,their aesthetic structure has contained the potential of frustrating completely the spirit of reason.Second,modern Chinese literature on the whole presents a contradiction between the spirit of reason and the rationality impulse. Rationality is an opening,instrumental reason,which aims for determinacy,regulation,effectiveness,utilitarianism.Therefore, rationality is not in harmony with literature.The strong Rationality impulse as shown in modern Chinese literature has undergone three historical stages:May 4^th literature revolution,realism trend, revolutionary proletarian literature.The origin of Rationality impulse can be traced to Liang qichao's literary idea of reformism.The theoretical reason Rationality impulse of can be attributed to the intrusion of scientific reason into literature.The reason of literature should have manifested itself in the aspect of the transparency and ascendancy of reason.The strong rationality impulse means the serious lack of the spirit of reason.Meanwhile,as another important literary force,The Critical Review School,Crescent School,Beijing School all expressly take reason as the criterion for evaluating literature.Their theory and literary practice have an obvious familial similarity.Restraint of emotion and representation of humanity are two major components of their solitary and hard aesthetic construction.Starting from morality and formalism, they question the Rationality impulse and uphold the spirit of reason of literature.Thirdly,to value morality is to advocate the spirit of reason of literature.In the context of the conflict between new and old,The Critical Review School criticizes the popular theory of evolving literature and morality.They emphasizes the morality of literature,believing that the highest level of literature is closely associated with good and that literature,although not identical with morality,can be uplifting and offer people with a moral utopia.These thoughts of emphasizing both the aesthetics and morality of literature have generalized and made transcendent and pervasive changes in the traditional Idea morality.They show their concerns about the disorder in social morality and do serious thinking about the problem of the morality of literature.They are a profound way of thinking,treating of art and morality from the ultimate. Liang shiqiu,a new humanist,and Zhu guangqian,an advocate of pure literature,assert the morality of literature while they advocate aesthetics of literature.But they also differ in their theoretical bias.Liang shiqiu puts emphasis on the morality of literature.Yet he tends to see aesthetics of literature from the standpoint of ethics,worrying that too much emphasis on aesthetics will lead literature into a decadent direction.By contrast,Zhu guangqian fears that too much emphasis on morality will destroy the beauty of literature.He thinks that morality should the object of aesthetic concern and that beauty should embrace good.In addition, Shen congwen's literary ideal of reshaping national character comes from his deep concern about the serious reality.It is also a tireless thinking and determined advocate of the spirit of reason of literature.This theoretical conception includes the evaluation of the morality of the society,the criticism of the outer living environment of literature,the requirement for the creative subject,and thoughts on aesthetic education and the possibility of using literature to improve national character.It has formed a coherent and logic system.Last,this dissertation discusses the spirit of reason of modern Chinese literature from the perspective of supervision of reason to poetics. Literature requires a practicable reason of supervision because literature can not accomplish by itself.That is to say,literature as a creative act requires wisdom in practice so that the writing agent can maintain a state of listening,understanding,and mastering.Now,the task of reason is to monitor the technique of language use to keep alive imagination and supervise the unspeakable.Therefore,although the liberation of poetics in the early stage of literary revolution has strongly pushed forward the development of modern Chinese literature,injected new blood into the new literature,making the new literature vigorous and fresh,the rejection of form,if carried to extreme will leads to the extreme of form nihilism. The willful and reckless writing free from reason is obviously harmful to literary creation.The poets of Crescent School,having clear-minded form consciousness,are alert to tendency of non-poeticizing in poetry revolution,opposed to unchecked freedom in creation.They lay stress on the formal elements such as rhythm and syllables,devote themselves to reconstructing the system of new modern poetry.The writers and theorists of Beijing School in their theory and practice show their emphasis on practicable reason,probing deeply into the relationship between dream and reality,wild flights of imagination and reality.They demand freedom in fetters,lay stress on art form and technique,take propriety as the criterion and the end of using technique.Beijing School focuses on art and aesthetics.On the basis of the achievements of May 4^th New Cultural Revolution,it makes detailed and significant rectification of the direction of modern Chinese literature and contributes to the harmony,maturity, stability of literature and art,contributing greatly to the wholesome development of literature and culture.