Meditation On History

From the perspectives of social and historical criticism and with analysis of the state of mind of writers, this dissertation systematically studies "The May Seventh Cadre Schools" of Xiangyang Lake. It sorts out the historical changes of the schools, recounts the cadres' living and working conditions, and makes academic researches into the cadres'reminisce and the changes of their state of mind accordingly. Based on all these materials, the dissertation discusses the connotation of "Xiangyang Lake Culture" and the characteristics of "Xiangyang Lake Literature".Chapter One introduces the historical background of "The May Seventh Cadre Schools", its beginning and developing as well as the political and intellectual reasons of its prosperity.Chapter Two studies "The May Seventh Cadre Schools" from historical and psychological perspectives and probes into the intellectuals'state of mind and its changes.Chapter Three analyzes the contents and characteristics of the reminisce of the Cadre Schools and discloses the connotation of "Xiangyang Culture".Chapter Four focuses on four writers in the Cadre Schools and their state of mind embodied in their works, aiming to illustrate the characteristics of "Xiangyang Lake Literature" with the combined methods of text comprehension and non-text comprehension.To sum up, the conclusion generally compares "The May Seventh Cadre Schools" in Xiangyang Lake with Chinese traditional intellectuals' relegation and Western intellectuals' exile so as to demonstrate "The May Seventh Cadre Schools" in a broader background.