The Cultural Breakout And The Reconstruction Of The Literary Genre

"The strength of poem" was a key word for discussing Lu ’Xun’s literature. That Lu Xun proposed "the strength of poem" in literature was based on his fundamental judgment about the literary circles at the end of Qing Dynasty. He didn’t satisfied with the popular idea that time that literature was only to be considered as an instrument for enlightenment, neither did he satisfied with the traditional idea that literature was considered as light readings. Therefore, literature itself became an objective needed to be rethought and redefined in the course of the great cultural transformation. The focused thinking about literature by Lu Xun in his early age was embodied in his five theses written by classical Chinese during his period of studying in Japan. He thought the reason why literature was necessary for human was that literature could get involved in human’s spiritual life as being a pose of resistance which could be expressed as "to stir up human". That is to say, though literature hadn’t a direct connection with "actual gains", it must touch humans’ soul by its own way, which could be considered as the unique "useless" function of literature and gained an independent inherent character for it, which differed literature from science, history and philosophy. Based on the function of "to stir up human", emphasizing the vigorous, defying, destroying, and challenging literature which was among the literary tradition initiated by Byron and Shelley etc. became the core of Lu Xun’s "the strength of poem" theory. Relying on this theory, Lu Xun not only resolved literature’s entanglement between art and utility, but also redefined "literature" fundamentally, and established the keynote for his later writing.The pursuit for "the strength of poem" was most amply reflected in Lu Xun’s essay writing (杂文写作)in his later stage. His essay writing could be roughly divided into two periods by1927. Compared with the essay in earlier stage, the prominent feature of the essay in later stage was that the essay got more deeply involved in the political field. Faced with the rise of the "revolutionary literature" and the change of the identity of Lu Xun himself, he had to seriously think about the relationship between literature and politics. The upsurge of the political air inevitably brought about some constraint to literature; however, it was also a rare chance for Lu Xun’s literature which pursued for "the strength of poem". Hence, Lu Xun not only didn’t object that literature was required to bear corresponding political content, but also thought literature ought to be involved in politics. The question was how to get involved in politics? Undoubtedly the resistant essay writing aimed to "stir up human" became the best choice in the face of politics. It was in the duel between literature and politics that Lu Xun’s essay in his later stage arrived in a new altitude. The writing pursuing for "the strength of poem" emphasized being involved in humans’spiritual life with a pose of resistance, which was finally led to humans’existence and writing itself, and became a torture for the soul and a experimentation in the literary style. Lu Xun’s essay in his later stage was applied to explore the various possibilities and limitation of the writing in the duel between literature and politics, which meant it was a cultural breakout, as well as a reconstruction of the category of literature.My thesis tried to present the course of Lu Xun’s essay in his later stage exploring to gain "the strength of poem" in the duel between literature and reality especially politics on the basis of analyzing the concrete text. For arguing the creation of "the strength of poem" of Lu Xun’s essay in his later stage, it was natural to go back to the history context at the time. But starting from the external context of that time was not the best choice. As a writing style extremely colored by personal characteristics, Lu Xun’s personal circumstances ought to be paid more attention to. The context of the time became small but complete to be formed into his essay only when it was connected with his personal circumstances, his "own fact itself. That is to say, joining in "the debate of revolutionary literature", getting involved in the journal "Free Talk", and facing with the disease and the death in his remaining years (after1934) were all significant to Lu Xun’s essay writing in his later stage.The thesis was divided into four chapters and discussed as follows:Chapter one discussed "the debate of revolutionary literature" that profoundly influenced Lu Xun’s thought and literature in his last ten years, especially his attitude to the essay during the debate. Just as Takeuchi Yoshimi said,"debate" was a kind of "sideline all his life" for Lu Xun, so his taking part in the debate was a choosing pose as well as a writing strategy. In this chapter, I tried to argue Lu Xun’s essay writing during the debate from the perspective of the standpoint and the content of "the debate of revolutionary literature", and of the debate being as a form."The debate of revolutionary literature" between Lu Xun and the Creation Society and the Sun Society supplied an excellent chance for Lu Xun to reconsider the relationship between literature and revolution and politics, and also established the foundation for his choosing the essay as the main literary category in his late ten years.Chapter two discussed the relationship between the journal "Free Talk" and Lu Xun. Why and how did Lu Xun get involved in the journal "Free Talk" in1933? And what influence had it brought to his essay writing? Lu Xun’s actively getting involved in the "Free Talk" was the continuity of the social criticism and civilized criticism before that, as well as the exploring the various possibilities of the essay writing in the business newspapers and journals. In this chapter, I tried to investigate the relevance between Lu Xun’s essay writing and the renovation of the edition of the "Free Talk", the confrontation between the "Free Talk" and "the Great Evening Paper", and the change of the authors and the readers, etc. Lu Xun was adjusting to the requirement of the media while borrowing the media as an expressing platform, and gradually developed a rather ripe writing mode, which finally resulted in the consciousness of Lu Xun’s essay writing in the literary style.Chapter three discussed the relationship between Lu Xun’s circumstances in his remaining years and his essay writing. Lu Xun spent his last two years almost on the struggle with the disease and the death, and at the same time he was in the middle zone of kinds of contradictions in the Left. To understand his essay writing in his later stage, a precise cognition for his circumstances in his remaining years was first required. That is to say, in this chapter, I tried to analyze the serious difficulties Lu Xun had to face in his remaining years seeing from the people around him, his disease and the upcoming death, and the corresponding change in his writing. In conclusion, on the one hand, Lu Xun focused on remarking on Chinese history and culture, intellectuals themselves, and even life itself. On the other hand, we would find that his consciousness of self-reflection was getting stronger. For example, he had a rather complex attitude to his ideal of enlightenment before, and his essay style represented a polyphonic characteristic to some extent.Chapter four discussed the formation of Lu Xun’s idea of the essay and the problem on the form of his essay in his later stage from the perspective of configuration by clearing up Lu Xun’s literary thought in his early age and analyzing his translation for the literary theory from Kuriyagawa Hakuson and the Soviet Union."The strength of poem" not only became the core proposition of his essay in his later stage, but also caused the aesthetic pursuit for defamiliarization in the literary style.