A Study On The 1940s’ Liberalism Literature

Liberalism literature in the 1940s entered a new stage of development. This paper tries to examine liberalism literature in the specific historical context of that period when it encountered pressure and challenges, and in a different political environment, in which it showed the various or identical aesthetic pursuits and its complex relationship with other types of literature.The paper, which is divided into seven sections, starts with an introduction to liberalism and the concept of liberalism literature as well as their relationship, to the status quo of liberalism literature studies, and to the significance of studying the 1940s’ liberalism literature.The first chapter focuses on analysis of the pressure and challenges liberalism literature faced in the first half of the 1940s. After the outbreak of the war against Japanese Invasion, "nation priority" nationalism became the mainstream ideology in the Rear Area. By the banner of nationalism, the Kuomintang implemented the culture-revivalism policies, but also tried to launch a ruling arts policy. Under the influence of the "nation priority" ideas, some of the intellectuals favored dictatorship. Chen Quan and other so-called "Warring States Strategies" intellectuals, held the "nation priority " idea to the extreme, promoting the "hero worship" and National Literature Movement which advocates absolute obedience of each individual. By contrast, Left-wing literature was putting the publicity function of literature into full play, advocating the adoption of literature popularization and other means to launch people’s anti-Japanese passion. Although the intellectuals were in support of the KMT government, "Warring States Strategies" intellectuals and left-wing writers had different demands in the class interests, the nation’s future and other issues, they all have emphasized that in the special circumstances of the war, the individual should be absolutely subservient to the supremacy of the collective nation. All of them were criticizing liberalism and liberalism literature which advocated the priority of individual freedom. Liberal intellectuals including Luo Longji, Shen Congwen, Zhu Guangqian, Liang Shiqiu, etc., responded to defend individual independence and freedom, emphasizing the literature of freedom and the freedom of literature.The second chapter focuses on examining the liberalism literature in the area under KMT ruling. Zhu Guangqian, Shi Zhecun, Liang Shiqiu and others defended the mellow and health of the liberalism literature through criticizing the "disadvantages and disease" of literature. In the specific literature, Liang Shiqiu consciously turned away from the war to the daily life, trying to find a poetic life in the most ordinary life and to find the eternal human nature behind the trivial and ordinary phenomenon. Xu Xu and Wu Mingshi tried to highlight individual’s life dignity and value. Behind their "new individualism", in fact, the priority of individual freedom has become an aesthetic pursuit. Feng Zhi showed his concern for individuals in his literary world, in which the ideal individual is the "whole person". This "whole person" with new born spirit and correlating with natural life shows its courage to bear the responsibility while facing a second choice in life. Shen Congwen in 1940s was in a bid to surpass the previous pastoral style, while actively trying to use a more appropriate form of literature to represent the highest form of life-i.e. beauty and love. He hoped to create "God-in-our-life" masterpieces to achieve socially and nationally re-created literary ideals.The third chapter concerns liberalism literature in occupied area, especially in Shanghai. In the special political environment of occupied area, writers, in particular liberalism ones, showed a liberal initiative verbally or nonverbally. On the one hand, under political pressure, they lost the freedom of expression in the literary space. On the other hand, they took full advantage of all the writing opportunities to personalize the self-life experience of the war to a high degree. Similar to Liang Shiqiu living in the KMT-ruled area, the writers in occupied area tried to find eternity in everyday life. Zhang Ailing was in a highly conscious literary aesthetic pursuit and became the leader of literature in occupied areas. And Qian Zhongshu expressed self split and lost by means of "potential writing".The fourth chapter attempts to analyze a group of left-wing writers who showed the tendency of the reconciliation between left-wing literature and liberal literature. Different from Mao Zedong’s discourse advocating the liberation of the individual through social revolution, "July School" writers represented by Hu Feng in the KMT ruling area stressed the primary task of liberating the human nature from destruction of the historical violence. Ding Ling and Wang Shiwei before the concening of Yan’an Forum as well as Xiao Jun living through the Yanan liberated area and the Northeast liberated area were waveringly playing the multiple roles of intellectuals, writers, revolutionary cadres, party members, which made them more inclined to keep the identity of intellectuals and writers. And different from representatives of the revolutionary regime of Mao Zedong emphasizing the different ideological transformation of Lu Xun later, Hu Feng, Ding Ling, Xiao Jun and others inherited the spirit of Lu Xun’s internal critical spirit, hoping to expand the criticism of the revolution and realize the revolution within the revolution so that the individual can be completely liberated under the revolutionary system. Meanwhile, Hu Feng and the others who often considered theirs the orthodox literature launched critique against liberalist writers. Therefore, although they showed the tendency of liberalism literature, but their works can not be categorized as liberalism literature.Chapter V analyzes another important choice the liberal intellectuals including a group of liberal writers were facing during the second war between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party. On the issue of where China to go, liberal intellectuals stood as moderate, trying to plan a "Imagined Communities". Nationalist scholars put forward the slogan of "re-revolution in art" in an attempt to meet the current war with so-called "insurgency-suppressing literature and art". In accordance with "Speeches at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art", the mainstream left-wing literature turned to the new direction of "people’s literature". In its call, some liberalist writers including Zhu ziqing, Feng Zhi and Li Guangtian turned to the left-liberal circle while the other liberalist writers such as Shen Congwen, Zhu Guangqian, Yang Zhensheng, Yuan Kejia, etc still insisted on liberal literary position. Under the pressure of new direction of the left-wing literature, they tried to reconstruct the literary concept of liberalism.Epilogue engages in introspection of the self-study position through self-questioning.