Russian Literary Tradition In The World Of Lu Xun's Spirit

A study of the relationship between Lu Xun and Russian literature and its major authors has always been a key field of Lu Xun studies and comparative studies of Chinese and Russian literature at home and abroad,and fruitful results have been achieved in translation study,influence study,parallel study,cross-cultural comparison and other aspects,leaving abundant academic accumulations and arduous development challenges for this research project.However,the discussion of the core problem that how Lu absorbed and digested Russian literature as a receiver and author to nourish and build his own spiritual world and artistic world still has room for development to be further strengthened,detailed,deepened and innovated.In the course of the building of Lu's spiritual world,how Russian literature as his constant important spiritual resources integrated into his spiritual world,how it became a driving force of his spirit,and how it deeply influenced his spiritual construction and writing are main problems that the author continues to explore based on previous studies.This paper comprehensively adopts comparative literature,aesthetic of reception,psychoanalysis and cross-cultural comparison and other methods,takes interactive dialogue and spiritual communication between Lu Xun as a receiver and author and Russian literature together with its representative writers as subjects,proceeds with historical data about his reading,translation,criticism and use of Russian literature,and focuses on expounding on the ideological and artistic connections and differences between Lu and Russian writers and works and the originality and transcendence of Lu as a receiver and author through a close reading of related texts,intertextual comparison and empirical study,thus exploring the compound role and transformational significance of Russian literature in the construction of his spiritual world.This paper focuses on discussing the close relationship between Lu Xun and Russian literature together with its representative writers Gogol,Tolstoy,Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Andreyev.For the four eminent writers selected,this paper concentrates on their respective representative significance and mutually complementary significance to the spiritual construction and writing of Lu.Chapter one provides an overview of the relationship between Lu Xun and Russian literature.This chapter carefully organizes the course of Lu Xun from his studies abroad in Japan to his returning home and reading and translation of Russian literature,and then summarizes how his literary thoughts as well as novels,proses and essays drew on and innovated Russian literature,laying a foundation for the follow-up four chapters to discuss the relationship between Lu and these four key writers by providing his history of reading and translation as well as overall comparison.Chapter two discusses the lifelong spiritual association between Lu Xun and Gogol.Gogol,as a founder of Russian critical realism literature,drove Lu to resonate and dialogue with,use and innovate his insights into life,critical realism,satirical art and other aspects,while Lu made a breakthrough and surpassed Gogol in many dimensions of critical realism.Chapter three discusses the ideological relationship between Lu Xun and Tolstoy.Lu's dialectical sublation of Tolstoyan humanitarian thought not only is embodied in the course of the building of Lu's spiritual world but also is manifested in spiritual connotations of his novels,proses and essays,representing Chinese writers' dialectical development of Tolstoyan humanitarianism.Chapter four probes into the art of spiritual dissection of Lu Xun and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.Both were good at dissecting complicated psychology and spiritual pain of people and elevated realism into spiritual interrogation both in depth and height,yet they were different in the psychological description as one tended to “fine brushwork” and the other preferred “freehand brushwork” and they took different paths in the exploration of human emancipation.Chapter five analyzes and differentiates between Lu Xun and Andreyev in terms of writing style and ideological characteristics.This chapter focuses on discussing the influence of Andreyev's “gloominess” on dark provenance,aesthetic preferences and dark wilderness of the spiritual world of Lu,Lu's absorption and flexible use of symbolistic writing techniques of Andreyev,and Lu's criticism of Andreyev's nihilistic thoughts.At last,this paper summarizes how Lu Xun sublated and transformed Russian literary tradition,and sums up three most prominent manifestations of his being deeply influenced by Russian literature as follows: first,sober realism spirit,wide-ranging social contents,confession awareness,sense of mission,critical consciousness in Russian literature,including the courage to reveal social and national problems,exerted a profound influence on Lu;second,strong patriotism,persistent and painful pursuit of spiritual liberation,humanitarian spirit nurtured by sufferings in Russian literature had a deep impact on Lu;third,unique characteristics of the carriers of Russian literature had a deep impact on Lu,therefore Lu existed as a unique monument in modern Chinese literature.