On Shen Congwen's Early Military Career Novels

Shen Congwen is a very unique writer in the modern Chinese literary world. He produced nearly 5 million words of literary works with his persistence and diligence as a "countryman", constructing a mysterious and fascinating world of West Hunan (known as Xiangxi) for the readers. He created a large quantity of early works, a considerable part of which involves the theme of military career. These novels mirror his early army career and are also objective description of the servicemen in West Hunan.But in the existing researches, the production of Shen Congwen's early military career novels have not been attached too much importance by researches. Few of them have focused their attention on this field. Therefore, this paper makes an attempt to clarify the development of Chinese modern military career literary and deals with the characteristics and significance of Shen Congwen's early military career novels by making study of Shen Congwen's life experiences, novel texts and narrative patterns, anticipating to supplement the few number of researches on Shen Congwen's early military career novels.This paper is divided into four parts to expound the theme. Chapter One investigates the reasons for Shen Congwen writing his early military career novels by analyzing his military ancestry and his spirit of military ambitions. Chapter Two summarizes the situation of Shen Congwen creating his early military career novels. The author categorizes his works from the perspective of different character types. Chapter Three investigates the connotation and characteristics of Shen Congwen's army career novels with great emphasis, interpreting from the standpoints of human nature, his childhood and death. Chapter Four deals with the influence of Shen Congwen's military career novels, comparing it with other novels in the environment of Chinese modern and contemporary military career literary. Thus, the author makes a conclusion that Shen Congwen's early military career novels have not only enriched the "May 4th" New Culture Campaign, but also supplementing the absence of military career subjects. They are an inseparable part of Shen Congwen's literary creations, composing his perfect " world of west Hunan".