The Urban Writings Of "Post-70s":Writers In The Social Transformation Period

Since 1990 s,China has been undergoing great social transformation,which is accompanied by the transformation of the Chinese literature.There are two signs of the transformation: one is the transformation from the modern realistic literature to the contemporary social-transformational literature,which began to develop at the beginning of the last century;the other is the transformation from the rural literature to the urban literature.These two signs of transformation are of great significance to the development of Chinese literature,which are fully reflected in the literary creation of the Post-70 s writers at that time,marking the significance of the present study.It has been nearly 30 years since the “Post-70s” writers came on the contemporary Chinese literary stage in the period of social transformation at the turn of the century.Over the past three decades,there has been constant controversy among readers and critics over the “two rises” of “Post-70s” writers.An important reason for this controversy is that the rise of the Post-70 s coincided with the great transformation of the Chinese literary field.Among various literary criticism,the Post-70 s writers stick to their literary dreams,having achieved exciting achievements.Today,“Post-70s” writers have become a “backbone” in contemporary Chinese literary field.From today's literary standpoint,it is the academic responsibility of contemporary literature research to examine the unban literary creation of the “Post-70s” writers,put them under the background of social transformation,and grant them an objective and appropriate assessment in the literary history.Based on this orientation,this paper focuses on a research of urban literature creation of “Post-70s” writers between 1990 and 2010.First of all,the introduction of the present paper reviews and integrates the research results of urban literature creation of Post-70 s writers in the past 30 years by analyzing the individuality and common characteristics of urban literature creation of Post-70 s writers in the period of social transformation from two aspects:case study and holistic study.In this opening chapter,several key concepts in this paper are defined: “Post-70 s writers”,“social transformation period”,“urban literature”,“urban cognition” and “urban experience”.Chapter 2 makes an in-depth analysis of the relationship between social transformation and urban literary writings of Post-70 s writers,as well as how Post-70 s writers and their urban literary creation emerge in the period of social transformation.Social transformation,China's economic system reform under the background of economic globalization,“unbanized” development,the establishment of market economic system,the dawn of the consumption era and other political and economic factors constitute the historical context of urban literature activities of “Post-70s” writers;in this period,the “great discussion of humanistic spirit” within the academic circle,the further marketization of urban literature and the secularization of readers' consumption in the era of mass culture constitute the cultural context of urban literature activities of “Post-70s” writers.Absorbing the research results of critics for many years,this part focuses on the naming process and identity construction of “Post-70s” writers,the appearance and characteristic writing of their urban literature,and their own pursuits and writing preference of literary creation.The body part of the paper consists of three chapters,Chapter 3 through Chapter 5,which carry out in-depth research from three dimensions of “Post-70s”writers' creation: the “bottom Writing”,“elite writing” and “female writing”.Chapter 3 focuses on the “bottom Writing”,making an analysis of the lives of three groups: the laid-off workers,“urban villagers” and urban civilians.For the laid-off workers,a profound picture is presented about the life and spirit of their laid-off,living hardship,losing their former glories as well as their jobs,and starting again with great courage;for the “urban villagers”,the Post-70 s writers write about their lost and persistent life after moving to the city,and their helplessness and embarrassment in the dilemma between urban and rural lives;for the urban civilians,they write about their troubled life in the difficult situation,and their poetic ease and happy time despite poverty and struggles,reflecting the ordinary city people's daily life with secularity.Chapter 4 devotes to the writing about “urban elites”.This chapter analyzes“Post-70s” writers' works about the living reality and spiritual state of urban elites in the face of urban consumerism and commercialization,including those with elite minds,the growing future elites,the intellectual elites,the white-collar elites and the enterprise elites with a certain identity and status.The analysis focuses on the elites' living reality and spiritual situation of confusion and integrity,and loss and progress.Through their civilian perspective of writing,the reflection and enterprise of Post-70 s writers along with their contemporaries in confusion and perplexity can be seen;the writing of elites is characterized by “personalized”writing,and the writing situation and characteristics with the lack of aesthetic transcendence dimension.Chapter 5 is about “female writing”.This chapter focuses on the study of the unique living conditions of urban females from the perspective of “body narration”of “Post-70s” female writers,showing the changes of urban females' “sex”consciousness brought about by the social and economic transformation and the rise of consumer culture,as well as the complex relationship between the two genders.Moreover,it explores why the “Post-70s” female writers tend to use the“body narration” in their urban female writing from three perspectives: the historical origin,realistic reasons and the female writers' own reasons.Chaper 6,the concluding chapter,explores the value and significance of urban literature creation of Post-70 s writers in the period of social transformation.This chapter lays emphasis on the literary breakthrough and innovation of urban literature creation of Post-70 s writers,the impact on and reconstruction of aesthetic value,and then the intergenerational role and significance of the urban literature of Post-70 s writers.The “intergenerational” role means that,through“Post-70s” writers,literature has developed from politicization and elitism to commercialization and marketization;the relation between rational writing and perceptual writing shifted from conflict to coexistence;literary narration has evolved from elite grand narration to popular daily narration.Chapter 7 presents the epilogue of the study.It can be drawn that,compared with the previous generation of writers,the “Post-70s” writers lack the grand narrative and humanistic care,and are different from the “post-80s” due to a lack of mature commercial writing model.The first appearance of “Post-70s” writers was marked by the “body writing” of female writers.The naming and evaluation of them in the literary world,as well as the internal and external factors of literature,such as social economy and business,make this group of writers “a generation of being covered”.In fact,a comprehensive study of the urban literary creation of the Post-70 s writers in the period of social transformation can reveal the historical contributions of the Post-70 s writers.Their works of urban literature have fully and truly recorded the material and spiritual situation of urban life in the period of social transformation,enriching and expanding the field and space of urban literature creation.At the same time,their exploration and attempt in many fields have become the era record and literary mark of the special historical stage of China's social transformation at the turn of the century,the profound literary,historical and sociological value of which should be affirmed and confirmed.