| In the 40s of the 20th century, Shanghai being the enemy-occupied area, Zhang Ailing added numerous topics to modem Chinese literature with stories which analysed life and human nature deeply. This paper tries to discuss Zhang's enduring artistic charm from three aspects: the reason for Zhang's thorough and profound study of the weaknesses of human nature; the particular reflection of human nature's complete exposure in its weaknesses in her works; the significance and value Zhang's works have.1. Zhang Ailing can face the side of human nature full of wound, which relates closely to her being able to make the sense of self-reflection sharply embodied hi her writings. Self-reflection, here in its broad sense, refers to the outbreak of the writer's individual field of vision, and the careful study of women's fate, men's confusion, cultural spirit of the day, customs of all classes and even the common human nature of the whole human beings. The formation of Zhang's sense of self-reflection mainly comes from the following five factors: (1). her special family background from its prosperity to its decline; (2). lack of healthy and normal love from parents during childhood; (3). being able to have a clear look at the limitation and awkwardness of Eastern and Western cultures; (4). Influenced by the critical spirit of Western modern culture; (5). The surviving difficulty in enemy-occupied area provides an ideal stage for her to look at human nature.2. Zhang Ailing usually explores human nature from bisexual relationship and marriage. She goes deep into the social and cultural structures of the day and displays fully various weaknesses of human nature through the direct and inevitable relation of men and women. Zhang reveals the weaknesses of human nature from three aspects.(1). A careful study of women's weaknesses in character and their fatal tragedy in incomplete culture.The analysis of weaknesses and fatal tragedy in Zhang's works focuses on the following four parts: (a), criticise women's sense of slavishness (b). analyse women's distorted spirit under material desire (c).disclose human's weaknesses from women's distorted and abnormal sexual psychology confined by feudal ethics (d). portray women's fear, vanity and self-degeneration in urban commodity society.(2). A reveal of the men's weaknesses under the background of new and old cultures mixing and conflicting with each otherZhang not only describes the miserable fate of women in male-dominated culture for several thousand years in China, but also discloses the corruption and harm the male-dominated society does to men themselves.Man characters in Zhang's novels can be roughly divided into two types: one is those adherents of the feudalism who are willing to sink into depravity, coward and bored. Zhang reveals the nature of their spiritual lives that die one after another. Another is the modern men in colonial metropolis who have accepted new ideas, but haven't completely got rid of the control of old culture at the same time. Zhang's works describe the realistic cultural situation in which these multi-culture bearers feel at loss and from which the absurdity and tragedy of life are thus produced.(3). The weaknesses of human nature hi common living form exposed under the special background of enemy-occupied areaThe weakness, helplessness wandering and disorder of human nature are shown by Zhang from daily life. She describes the background with Chinese and Western cultures melting, new and old ones mixing, which helps her a lot to reveal such weaknesses as awkwardness, ridiculousness and blindness of those figures in colonial urban society.3. The significance and value Zhang's works possess in revealing and analysing the weaknesses of human nature(1). Enrich and deepen the theme of women literatureShe seeks ways of relief for women by analysing the causes that lie in women themselves, and breaks the limits to explore the sources of women's miserable fate in sociological aspects such as politics, history, classes and economy, which plays an... |
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