A New Perspective On The Subjectivity Of The Literary Work During The Seventeen Years (1949-1966)

The seventeen years dating from 1949 to 1966 can be assumed to an important stage in the history of modern Chinese literature history. In the past fifty years, in criticizing or evaluating the seventeen years there have always been some evident uncertainties and divergencies. Most of these criticisms, as it is, studied and delineated the literary work of the seventeen years either from the perspectives of a historical background, a social context or some fixed literary norms, rather than from an internal perspective. However, a literary work of art, which is closely associated with a writer's subjective thoughts, his psychological state and his retrospection of the nature of man, is his/her creative production as well as a mirror of his /her consciousness. Therefore, it is justifiable that we observe the literary work of the seventeen years from the perspective of the subjectivity of literary work, (i.e. from the perspective of writers' psychological state).Evidently, to guarantee their productions to be incorporated with the mainstream ideology of the seventeen years and to tailor to the aesthetic tastes of the mass, the writers of the era strained to reconstruct "self of their own, and to make their work popular to a great extent. It was just their effort, their great enthusiasm, and their idealism that march them into a new epoch, which highlights the song of Chinese revolution.After a close study of the writers' psychological and mental state, we may find, there existed a strong mentality: sincerity and faithfulness, that is, they had firm beliefs in the cause of national construction, indomitable faithfulness in the ideology of the era and the literary norm of realism.Encouraged by these findings, we may find that the mentality is highly relevant to the literary trend of the era and it is a determining factor in constructing the epithalamia of the era. Inspired by the mainstream mentality, the literary work of the seventeen years had paved their way to being classics, which are renowned for being hard to be depreciated and distorted by the contemporary systems of values. Especially, the writers' initiative and sincerity may be prescribed as a remedy to cure the ailment in literary production of the era of consumption.