The Transformation Of Models: The Cultural Interpretation Of The Public Literature In The Transformational Period

Public literature, as the term suggests, is the popular literature written by public writers (i.e. anonymous and known full-time writers) that reflects the public people's life and expresses their emotions. The latter half of 20th century witnessed the change of material and spiritual situations that led to the transformation of the connotation of the public literature. It was marked by the social transformation in China since her reform and opening-up, during which China came across the transformations from command economy to market economy, and from the provincial society to the open-minded one. Owing to the changes of epochal life, social situations, ideological backgrounds, esthetic attitudes, and the development of stylistics, the connotation and extension of public literature experienced fundamentally modernized transformation with fresh features, especially since the mass media stepped into the electrical age. With the blur of the poles of the pyramidal social structure, the new public social stratum's needs for their own cultures and languages give rise to the flourish of the new generation of public literature. If so, public literature in the transformational period, with more modern features, originated in the urban areas. It is the result of the modern industrial society and market economy. Targeting at urban public and urbanized migrant farmers, it is produced and enjoyed as fast food by mass media. With such fashioned features, it somewhat reflects and satisfies worldly spiritual needs. To reconciling the cultural conflict with the traditional ethnics and unitary politics, it is a psychological comfort for the modern public. It is commercial, entertaining, fashionable, and fast-food liking. With public literature as core of its systemic estheticism, it not merely embodies the historical legacy but is consistent with the direction of estheticism in the present time. Esthetically, it has the features: linear characters, ritual plot, and delightful estheticism. Influenced by the heterogeneous value attitudes, literature was becoming more multiple-faceted than single-faceted after 1990s. Instead of the free, initiative, indulgent and avant-garde works, many elite writers would like to create secular and public-oriented literature with new epochal features in the transformational period. Having the marginal characters, day-to-daylivelihoods, and urban subject matters, public literature is injected new factors and chances for development. Encountering the critics of public literature, we, however, have to choose standards for interpretation and value evaluation. Therefore, the establishment of standards is the key point to evaluate the value of public literature. The standards are suggested as the following: creativeness, idealness, and public-oriented. We don't know the future of public literature, but one thing is so definite that public literature continues to exist with elite and mainstream literatures. The social transformation and acceleration of literature democracy are due to bring about the development of public literature and other new phenomena and problems.