On Mao Zedong's "Talks At The Yan'an Forum On Literature And Art"(1942-1949)

As an important theoretical document,Mao Zedong's "Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art " has accumulated precious experience and lessons learned in the decades to guide the process of artistic practice.Description of its construction,changes in the historical process of stereotypes,and summing up to explore it at the status, impact and limitations in literary history,is an integral part of the building 20th century Chinese literary theory,but also an important content of the modernization and Nationalization of Chinese literature studies.Therefore,it is particularly necessary and important to take a systematic,scientific,historic view of the theoretic and practical form of "Talks " and make an in-depth study and evaluation on it.This Dissertation will focus the study on such a relatively complete historical period from 1942 when " Talks " was issued to when The first National Congress of Literary and art workers was held.It will mainly focus the research view on the four the key issues of " Talks ": theory analysis,theoretical dialogue,establishment of theoretical authority and Creative Practice.The purpose of this is to establish a clear and reasonable interpretation framework,and reveal the inevitability of this special Historical situation happened,but also make an effective Integration of existing research results and expand the depth and breadth of research on " Talks "Chapter one makes the 1943 edition of " Talks " as the research object,restores problem context of thoughts in " Talks " and demonstrates its thinking Characteristics and Theoretical significance through analysis and interpretation of basic theoretical levels in " Talks ".This Dissertation states even though the thoughts in " Talks " can be attributed to a number of important theoretical proposition,but its theory can be clearly divided into three basic levels:the literary thought extending from the ideology from,the people-based concepts and integration of Chinese and foreign literary theories.At the first level,the dissertation fully possesses and meticulously combines the literature,makes a comparative study on Mao Zedong's ideology thoughts and Related discussion in " Talks ".On this basis it Demonstrates that MaoZedong's ideology thoughts,which developed in the Anti-Japanese War and established in " New Democratic Theory " constitutes the theoretical foundation of the concept of " Talks ".Mao Zedong considers that literature as an element of ideology,as well as it has characters of class and practice.This opinion is the basic principles and methodology for Mao to analyze and solve art problem,but also the theoretical basis of all the key arguments in" Talks ".Mao Zedong fairly accurately gasps the general characteristics of literary as an ideology,the general characteristics of a writer's Practice as the starting point and the source of the ideology,and the general rules of literary creation as a process of ideological production.But Mao is not intend to discuss the special laws governing literary creation,therefore,"Talks " is not a general theory of literature and art works,but a concentrated expression of Mao Zedong's literature and art art concept.At the second level,the dissertation analyzes the Mao Zedong's concept of " people's literature ",that is the people-based concept and practice of literary and artistic forms.In the theoretical respect,Mao inherited and developed the Marxist literary thought of the people and idea of civilian literary since the May Fourth New Culture Movement.He set up a model for development of revolutionary literature at the core of meeting the needs of working people's cultural rights,which fully embodies his materialist history conception of the revolution and his ideal pursuit of making the people become true masters of the culture.In the practical respect,Mao Zedong analyzes the specific historical situation, use the priority of conflicting principles,and study a series of dialectics concept.Then Mao changes the the forementioned literature concept into some corresponding practical guidelines.To a large extent,these practical guidelines limit the the vision of the revolutionary literary creation,research and explain,so " Talks "has a certain meaning of paradigm.Meantime Contradictions' irreducibility and possibility of transform makes its own in the changing status at different times,and has a variety of possibilities to explain.At the third level,the dissertation focused on thecontact between " Talks " and Lenin's thoughts and the Chinese Left-wing literary." Party's Literature " is Sinicization of Lenin's " the principle of party's publication " under the special backgroup of tending to unify the communist party's leadership at the Anti-Japanese War.It originated from the Leninism country and political theory,which regards literature and art as an integral part and an important carrier of the ideology,makes it become an indispensable part of revolution chain ring,and thus sets up a set of system on the operation and management of literature similar to the Soviet Union."People's Literature" and "Party's Literature" are united in the class character of literature and art,but also are entangled in practice character.They show a rich and unique tension structure,and throw a profound impact on Mao Zedong's path to integrate idea of Left-wing literature and art.Mao Zedong inherits the mainstream concepts of Left-wing literary on such issues as the class character of literature and socialist realism literature,but also absorbs the idea of Lu Xun Literary opinion on such questions as the people and intellectuals.This integration reflects historical contact between" Talks" and the Left-wing literary and artistic,but also embodies the clutch between the idea of Mao Zedong and Lu Xun.Chapter two analyzes the important dialogue relations between "Talks " and the literary thought in Kuomintang areas tn 1940s.Seeing from the basic pattern of literary theory development in forties,there is a kind of substantive dialogue among " Talks ",the liberalism literary thoughts represented by Shen Congwen,Zhu Guangqian, and the revolutionary realism literary thought of Hu Feng,Feng Xuefeng.The differences between" Talks " and the liberalism literary thoughts is Fundamentally a conflict between two culture innovation ideas.Zhu,Shen have inherited and developed the way of criticizing the Chinese national character and the aesthetic Enlightenment,which advocated by The May Fuoryh New Culture Movement.It embodies an academic culture spirit that is college-based,regards the intellectuals as the main body,has aesthetic and practical features and is for creating a new national spirit.Mao Zedong has inherited the road of the revolution Enlightenment created by Left-wing literary movement after The May Fourth New Culture Movement,.It embodies is a political culture spirit that is based on national party,regards professional revolutionaries as the main body,has class and practical features and is to build the proletarian ideology.Zhu,Shen indeed attach importance to aesthetic Self-discipline of literature.It is a important feature of their literary concept,but they does not put this self-discipline into a narrow understanding,into the Misunderstanding of " art for art's sake ",but stress that arts and life practice must contact in a wide range,stress that arts should affect the society reality through its aesthetic functionality.this concept keeps Internal consistency to their academic culture spirit and cultural idealism.There are two indivisible aspects in Zhu,Shen's concept: the first is pursuit of artistic life,emphasis on the spiritual role of literature Beyond the utilitarian reality;the second is emphasis on contacts between literature and reality,the pursuit of art-for-life.It is in conflict with the law of Requesting literature subject to political established by" Talks ",but also aligned in many dimensions of literary practice.The revolutionary realism concept of Hu Feng,Feng Xuefeng is on behalf of a different theoretical demand from "Talks " in revolutionary literature camp.Tracing to its source,their artistic concept is closer to Engels'dicourse about realism methods.It has two internal characteristics--- the pursuit of historical truth and the emphasis on writer's subjective practice.However,the proletarian realism in " Talks " is also a logical development from Engels' discourse about the ideology functions of Realism literature.This conflicts between" Talks " and Hu Feng,Feng Xuefeng's revolutionary realism literary concept reflect their different routes to accept and interpret the Marxist theory of realism,but also determine their different understanding of The May Fourth New Literature and historical status of Luxun' realism creation.Secondly,Feng Xuefeng,Hu Feng replace the concept of " political " in" Talks" for that of " life " and restore the livelihood form abstract class struggle to specific perceptual practice.By this means,they trace the irreversible one-way structure in which Literature must serve the political in" Talks "back to an inverse two-way structure of literature and life,launched a restore to the methodology of relations between literary and political,that is,from literary determinism to literary theory of reflection.This fundamental shift due to different inclination between Mao Zedong and Hu Feng,Feng Xuefeng to accept the Marxist historical materialism and its impact on their literary concept.That also reflects profound contradictions in " Talks ".The terms as " Subjective Fighting Spirit " and " Subjective Combating Strength ",which come from Lu Xun's philosophy,are key concepts of Hu Feng,Feng Xuefeng's revolutionary realism thoughts.This concept includes two mutual aspects:Writer's profound identity of the people and a strong self-awareness,in-depth historical practice to explore the real life and individual ethical position.This makes it meet with " People's Literature" concept in "Talks ",but also deviated from " Party's Literature " concept and the class feature of literature. Chapter three Analyzes the historical inevitability of" Talks " authority establishment and how it was constructed.This dissertation concludes that authority establishment of" Talks "meet with the historical logic,but also is the result of the theoretical interpretation and the struggle in the field of thought.The literary concept and thinking method in " Talks " are related to a plenty of thoughts,such as philosophy,ideology,the united front,the masses and party.It fully reflects the essence of Mao Zedong thought at the formative stage,which make it one of the important documents of Mao Zedong Thoughts publicity before and after The Yan'an Rectification Movement.In this process,Mao Zedong's personal authority as a revolutionary leader,the political authority of Chinese Communist Party and the authority of Marxist theory have gradually shift or attached to " Talks ".Thus it is a certain inevitable for" Talks" to establish its authority.Zhou Yang's " Marxism and Literature and Art " and Shao Quanlin's " The Lliterary Criticism of Marx and Engels " conduct a comprehensive interpretation of" Talks " This interpretation makes " Talks " historically docking on the authority system of the Marxist Literary Theory in the Soviet Union,digs out connotation of Marxist principles in " Talks ",and greatly enhances its theoretical character.This interpretation established the authority of" Talks " in the field of literary theory and literary criticism.In the Rectification Movement was launched in Chongqing and Hong Kong after The Anti-Japanese War,Hu Feng's literary thoughts,liberalism literature ideas was regarded as petty bourgeois or bourgeois landlord thoughts, reduced to the objects of transformation and the critical,and lost equal qualifications to " Talks ".As a result," Talks " occupied a national position and the Party controlled the thoughts of the literary circles without no obstacles.Chapter four analyzes artistic practice under the guidance of" Talks " in the liberated areas by reading classic texts.The first part focuses on how the writing etique -tte in " Talks " overally limite the artistic practice in the liberated areas.A general contradiction in " Talks ",which is involved two dimensions of the life experience and the concept,as well as the artistic expression of realism and the Marxist stand,con -strain artistic practice in the liberated areas in general.for those Writers in the liberated areas,it is urgent to exercise in accordance with the development of literary trends,the characteristics of literary types and their own artistic personality.It is urgent to properly handle the relationship between these contradictions and find a balance point and connection means when writing.Even if in such an "overhanged" status of writing,there were many deviation,but depend on abundant life experience,a small number of writers still successfully break out at varying degrees.The second part studies changes of literary forms in the liberated areas under the guidance of" Talks ".The ideas about transforming the old form and absorbing forms of the masses guide the change of literary and artistic forms in the liberated areas.This change is essentially a full range of integration between ideology in the revolution and traditional literary resources.On one hand,with the traditional form,it would be easier for farmers to receive the modern revolutionary political and recognize its legitimacy.On the other hand,the traditional political ideas and ways of thinking come back by the hands of the revolution,displace or mask the modern nature of the revolution to a large extent.As a result,the text in the liberated areas is entangled between content and form, revolution and tradition.Alter all,the traditional form does not constitute another force against the revolution politics,under the control of the modernity logic in the revolution politics,the text in the liberated areas would free itself from the potential impact of the traditional resources.When the factors of traditional forms were eliminated,the significance and value of the revolution can eventually highlight itself.