Between Politics And Literature

This thesis takes the plays written by Xia Yan between 1930 and 1949 as the topic and makes a brief discussion on them as well as some related problems.The thesis consists of two parts. Xia Yan's literary ideas are dealt with in the first part. As a devoted guard of the Left Wing literature, Xia Yan sticks to the idea that literature should be for the sake of political and revolutionary struggle. Consequently, his plays are characterized by their distinctive political tendency, which finds its best expression in his histories. Meanwhile, Xia Yan is an excellent realistic playwright. From the very beginning, he has been persistent in his pursuit and exploration of the laws of realistic writing. His plays serve as a realistic representation of the history or the social life in his time.Part Two focuses on the writing style of Xia's plays, the characters of which are mostly petty urban dwellers and intellects, who are 'nobodies' and yet keep struggling in an age of tragedy. Xia explicitly argues that only when they get out of their personal life and plunge themselves into torrential current of the age and revolution can they find a way out and make the right choice. Though his plays also runs the keynote of revolutionary optimisticism and other positive implications, which are both inspiring and forceful.As one of the outstanding Left Wing writers, Xia Yan conscientiously learns and follows the requirement from political and revolutionary practice but at the same time industriously seeks after the literary laws of realism. By combining expertly the function of propagandizing and educating with that of aesthetics, he works out quite a lot of excellent literary works, which is most noteworthy. No wonder his plays are still being studied and commented.