Modern Context And Triditional Spirit

Modern Chinese literature orginated from the occurrence of Chinese modern social consciousness. It was a reflection of the sociocultural change at the time. The occurrence of Chinese modern social consciousness resulted from the introduction of modern Western culture.The modernity of Chinese literature features two aspects: enlightenment and aesthetics, both of which were born of the West and banners that were held high during the early stage of modern Chinese literature. However, although the formation of modem Chinese cultural system was strongly influenced by Western thoughts, they are not the only factor that worked. Modern Chinese intellectuals flaunted the banner of anti-tradition. The traditional culture is still exerting a profound influence at an implicit level, though. The formation of Chinese modern consciousness and modern literature was attributed to the joint work of modern Western thoughts and traditional Chinese culture. Thus the distinction between modern Western culture and literature was reflected.This thesis explores the cultural causes for the formation of modern Chinese literature by analyzing the literary creation of Lu Xun and Gu Moruo who were the principal representatives of modern Chinese literature.The thesis holds this opinion that the impact of traditional Chinese culture on them is tremendous. Such impact, on the one hand, can be found in their wide information of old Chinese learning, their concerns about social affairs and their cultural personalities and artistic taste molded by regional culture; On the other hand, such impact is embodied as "a preexistent horizon", which gets them to show an intense utilitarian tendency toward the acceptance and spread of modern Western thoughts.Hence modern Chinese literature is put into such a special modern context: large amounts of absorption and learning of Western modernism, which is fully embodied in the works of Lu Xun and Guo Moruo; lack of revelation of individual intentions which is a special characteristic of modern Western literature. Their works express more concerns about the fate of the nation, which displays an evident difference from moder Western literature. Their profoundcreativity and extensive influence makes great contribution to the new tradition of Chinese literature which also accounts for the distinctive features of their respective works as well as the fact that they are the new classics of modern Chinese literature.