Biographical Studies Of Modern Writers

Ever since the 20s of last century, in modern Chinese literary world, there has appeared an upsurge that writers composed there autobiographies. The autobiographies, not only in spiritual connotation but also in concrete style of writing, are vastly different from the aesthetic outlook of classic Chinese autobiographies. However, so far, the research on the autobiographies of these writers has been comparatively week, which is manifested in the following respects: small amount of research achievement, comparatively many particular case studies, and comparatively few comprehensive studies. Aiming at solving this problem, this paper attempts, on one hand, to analyze and evaluate the ideological contents and aesthetic characteristics of the texts of these autobiographies, and on the other hand, to wholly explore the common characteristics manifested in these autobiographies, in order to overall comprehend the literary achievements of these modern writers and to gain a deeper understanding of the literary style, autobiography.Chapter I , why write about " I " ,explores the reason why the modernwriters compose autobiographies. This paper takes it that compared with classic Chinese autobiographies and western autobiographies before Rousseau, the autobiography of a modern Chinese writer places emphasis of writing on the personal life of the writer, especially the development of his individual character. The writers acquired this awakening of self-consciousness mainly out of three reasons: first, being driven by the trend of thought of individual emancipation in the May 4th movement; second, worries about the future of the country and nation, and their personal future; the third, being driven by personal identity and profession.Chapter II , who am I, discusses the modernized construction ofautobiographer's personality in the autobiographies. The paper commences with the analysis of personal identification of the autobiographers, points out that they mostly put emphasis on reflection and discovery of self-value, which are abundant in pursuit of value and show the birth of modern personality witha modern connotation consciousness and the spirit of science.Chapter III, how to write about I, analyzes two representative aspectsselected from many characteristics shown in artistic expression of the autobiographies, one of which is that its method of representation is not limited the single way of classic Chinese autobiographies, i.e, the mixture of representation and argumentation , and thus gives birth to psychologized representation; the second of which is that its surrounding description shows great mobility, which is different from stiffness and other literary forms.The modern autobiographers have made great contributions not only to poetry, essay, novel, drama and so on, but also to autobiography. Their autobiographies are great mines deserving exploring. What this paper shows is just a corner of an iceburge. As the exploration goes further, the aesthetic value in the autobiographies of modern writers is bound to enlighten the current autobiography composition.