Wang Meng Literary Criticism

Wang Meng is not only a famous writer of contemporary China, but also a literary critic with profound insight and judgment. Established on this basis of the rich experience of life and literary creation,Wang Meng's literary criticism paid close attention to the development of contemporary literature and had a unique position in the history of contemporary criticism.This thesis studied Wang Meng's literary criticism from four aspects:The first part studied the changing of Wang Meng's literary criticism. Firstly, Wang Meng's concept of literature had been changing from the 1950s to 1990s. He started literary creation with the idea of writing"under the hint of life", and then he advocated the theory of Socialist Realism which emphasizes the social utility of literature, and he stressed the function of aesthetics and entertainment at last. Secondly, Wang Meng's criticism practice had different features in different periods. In the early 1980s, Wang Meng's literary criticism was mainly directing to the young writers, which never forgot the social utility of literature when it was"searching beauty". On the contrary, Wang Meng's studies on Dream of the Red Chamer were tactful and agile and had a powerful and unconstrained style.The second part analyzed the contradictions in Wang Meng's literary criticism. The contradictions firstly exists within the criticism itself: in 1980s, Wang Meng required that literature should immediately follow the footsteps of life and have positive emotions in order to educate and inspire people,and he would neglect the defects of these works which abided by the rules ; On the other hand,he could not completely give up the demands of artistic quality and often expressed dissatisfaction to the works which were following the rules but superficial,and he appealed for better literary outputs in many occasions. In the same time,some of Wang Meng's fictions wrote in 1980s were not consistent with his theory. His fictions of stream of consciousness queried the reality veiled by flaring tricks,and many of his fictions in late 1980s got out of the concern of major themes and played language and rhetoric games.The third part analyzed the repercussions and the historical significance of Wang Meng's literary criticism. Wang Meng had put forward a lot of valuable propositions which established his status in literary criticism. Although Wang Meng's change in 1990s surprised many people,his support to Wang Shuo's"shunning sublimation"and query to humanistic spirit was based on the thinking that what should literature do in current situation , which was consistent with his consecutive complex of politics and his pragmatic approach.The fourth part explored the value and significance of Wang Meng's literary criticism. The value of Wang Meng's literary criticism does not lie in his contributions to literary theory but lies in the history of literature and thought. Wang Meng's literary criticism subserves us to inspect the relationship between contemporary Chinese literature and politics and the development of the internal spirit of the generational intelligentsia of Wang Meng. Simultaneously,the authorial characteristic of Wang Meng's literary criticism has some value of reference to the construction of literary criticism.