Zhou Zuoren's Literary Thought And Creation In The Background Of Folk Culture

Based on careful reading of Zhou Zuoren's literary works concerning folk culture, this paper reviews the relationship between Zhou's schools of folklore and his literature. Focusing on the joint of the Personal History and the Social History, the paper attempts to replay the formation of Zhou's schools of folk culture and points out its features of the times. Furthermore, this paper also analyzes the impact of folklore on his literature theory and works in order to illustrate the background of the folk culture that are hidden in his literary thoughts and works, in the meantime, an overall consideration of Chinese culture on account of this background is extended as well.This paper is made up of three parts, namely, the introduction, the main part and the conclusion. Expounding the features of Zhou's study of folklore, the introduction part presents its peculiar relation between Zhou's literary thought and creation, meanwhile, the research trends and the basic line of thinking of this paper are introduced as well. The main part is further divided into four chapters. Chapter one is about Zhou's reminiscences, restoring the practical background of Zhou's interest and searching for his psychological motivation toward folk culture; Chapter two looks back Zhou's experience from carrying out independent research to throwing himself into the folklore movement of China in 1920s. In addition, this part also probes into the inner influence of Zhou's folklore study on the formation of his theory of Human's Literature and Common People's Literature; Illustrating the direct impact of folk culture on Zhou's literary thought and creation, Chapter three gives a specific analysis of the folk image and temperament in Zhou's works, protruding his recognition to human nature which is reflected via folk culture. In this way, the deep penetration of the implication of folk culture in his works is shown and hence, an enormous appealing power is produced; Chapter four demonstrates the influence of folklore theory that exerts on Zhou's framework of literary thought and extends to his complete view toward Chinese culture; The conclusion summaries the fundamental content of this paper and points out the possible extension of this issue and the practical significance of this research.