Studies On The Literary Purport Of Modern Sketch

In the 1930 s,against the cultural background of a relatively free and open Shanghai,the popular magazine,Modern Sketch,was published by Shanghai Times Press.Since its first publication in January 1934,the cumulative number of prints has reached 10,000 copies,which was equivalent to the circulation of 2,000 volumes of general publications at that time.It was a really considerable number of comic journal with the longest publication time.This paper takes Modern Sketch as the research object,and the research perspective is from the literary interest research.On the basis of Modern Sketch,the paper explores the typical issues theme narrative,literary style,spiritual appeal,literary debate,aesthetic taste,etc.,and,in turn,examines the specific manifestation of social urban scenes in Modern Sketch on the background of national crisis,neo-traditionalism and image popularization.It reveals the background of literature trend and political turbulence in the 1930 s,and highlights the social content and emotions in the context of modern culture..The first part focuses on the theme narrative of comics in Modern Sketch.In the 1930 s,comics appeared boring and empty in the Chinese literary world,especially in the contrast of the grand narrative of the proletarian revolutionary literature,but when the shallow,sensual,simple visual stimuli were abandoned,Modern Sketch constructed a thematic domain in terms of current affairs in the political and cultural fields,social critique of the mass media,mirror image transmission of modern cities and the sketching of people's livelihood.The social content and emotions expressed in Modern Sketch are unique in the 1930 s.Whether it is political satire or social satire,there is a strong spirit behind it.This spirit contains not only the national sentiments to save the world,but also the public feelings of satirizing reality.Resisting external humiliation,internal anti-dictatorship and allegory reality are subjective consciousness that writers cannot avoid.The second part mainly explores the literary style of comics in Modern Sketch.This chapter systematically sorts out the creative achievements of Modern Sketch and focuses on theanalysis of the content and style of the text.According to the literary propositions,cultural characters and creations,writers can be roughly divided into three categories: the first one is represented by Lin Yutang,Shao Xunmei and other Analects writers,including Yao Ying,Huang Jiayin,Xu Xu,Hu Xunqiu,Hai Ge,Zeng Die,Qi Fan,Qian Renkang,He Rong,etc.;The second one is the "new" writers cultivated by Modern Sketch,including young writers Jing Youlin,Zhang Wenyuan,Xu Xinqin,Huang Zhenxia,Chen Liaoping,Hong Hu,Jiang Fengxia,etc.;The third one is caricaturists who have extensively translated foreign caricature theories,and published caricature works and essays in Modern Sketch,such as Wang Dunqing,Chen Jingsheng,Lan Weibang and so on.Their understandings of "humor" are not the same,some are witty and humorous(Xu Xu);some are sharp and incisive(Jing Youlin);some are critical and lashing(Huang Jiayin);some are sad and sorrowful(Zhang Wenyuan);some are easily witty(Wang Dunqing);but they still represent the fresh quality of modern Chinese literature.The third part focuses on the creative thought and spiritual appeal of Modern Sketch.On the basis of the research in the former two chapters,this part mainly studies the road of pursuing beauty by Shao Xunmei,the boss behind the scenes,and discusses the editorial concept and practice of running the magazine.Shao Xunmei not only plays a huge role in the publication of Modern Sketch,capital investment and re-issuance,but also has an important influence on the formation of its style.Because Shao Xunmei has studied in the West,he is heavily influenced by the atmosphere of western modern art.When editing the pictorial,he persists in the idealized pursuit of aestheticism,and creates the operation mode of publishing modern journals in China.Modern Sketch holds high the banner of humor,and walks on the road of being close to the public and publishing innovation.It has become an important testimony of the Shanghai caricature industry in the 1930 s.The fourth part focuses on the literary idea and debate of Modern Sketch.Modern Sketch was an important stage for Lin Yutang and Shao Xunmei to advertise literary ideas,and faced many collisions of other ideological trends naturally.Through combing and confirming,the three articles published by Shao Xunmei and the two caricatures published by Wang Zimeiwere related to the dispute between Shao Xunmei and Lu Xun.It had important reference values for examining the cause and effect of the two writers,and showed the overall process of this public affair.Xu Zhimo,Shao Xunmei and other New Moon acquaintances,aimed to follow the poetic concept advocating aestheticism,and emphasized the notion "art for art".This literary and artistic concept was originated from Europe and the United States.Such concepts like advocating gentlemen and nobility were far apart from the mainstream “art for life”,and thus moved toward the opposite.The fifth part analyzes the aesthetic taste of the photo illustrations of Modern Sketch.The development of visual art in the 1930 s is fully reflected in Modern Sketch.On the one hand,it absorbed and developed Western modern art thoughts,and showed valuable exploration of modern art.At the same time,it applied avant-garde art forms to the localized performance practice,showing the inheritance and transcendence of traditional art concepts.The caricature group centered on Zhang Guangyu and Modern Sketch was called "Dispensationalism".The cubism tendency in their creations reflected the synchronic manifestation of the characteristics of Chinese native modernism language.Compared with the historic development of the West Cubism in the early 30 years,a unique dialogue was formed about the transplantation and reference of Western modernism.Modern Sketch is at the end of the "Golden Decade" of the National Government and on the eve of the Sino-Japanese War.Its content is influenced by the modern discourse of Shanghai and the rising nationalist discourse.For its absolutely powerful influence,a large number of influential painters and writers are attracted,and creation of caricatures and essays is realized as a result.Although the development of Modern Sketch cannot cover the whole picture of all modern publications in Shanghai,and its discussion can not replace the discussion of other literary publications,the study of literary style in Shanghai should return to the original literary context for detailed exploration.Otherwise,any research is deficient,and any attributive will be an indeterminate attribute.