A Comparative Analysis Of The Beat Generation Literature And China’s Post-Eighties Literature

The Beat Generation literature aroused a widespread controversy in the start of the1950s in the United States, experiencing criticism first and then confirmation. Itsmasterpiece is Jack Kerouac’s On the Road with its remarkable feature—rebellion. Onthe other hand, China’s Post-eighties literature refers to the works of the writers born inthe1980s in China. Han Han’s Three-Layered Door and Guo Jingming’s Never-Flowerin Never-Dream are the representative works, characterized with rebellion, desolationand befuddlement. In recent years, China’s Post-eighties literature also received greatattention, from the initial criticism to the later praise, full of dramatic color. As thetypical cases of the youth rebellious literature, both the Beat Generation literature andChina’s Post-eighties literature provide two different specimens of the youth rebelliousliterature in Chinese and American cultures.The Beat Generation literature came into being under the condition of thedisillusionment of American Dream and the social turbulence after the Second World War.Social factors led to the emergence of the spiritual crisis, which finally exertedtremendous impacts upon literature and culture, that is, anti-traditionalism. However,China’s Post-eighties literature came into form under the condition of the economicdevelopment and social transformation. With the abundance of material life, theprevalence of mass culture and consumerism as well as the influence of cultural context,the generation born under China’s one-child policy and shrouded by loneliness generatedrebellious and dolorous emotion. And this emotion was brought into their worksinvoluntarily, thus forming the literary and cultural phenomenon, full of rebellion andsentimentality.This thesis consists of three parts. The first part is the introduction, in which theBeat Generation literature and China’s Post-eighties literature are briefly introduced andthe significance of this comparative study is touched upon.The second part is the main body, including four chapters. The first chapter is astudy on the historical reasons for the formation of the Beat Generation literature andChina’s Post-eighties literature. The disillusionment of American Dream, the turbulentsocial conditions after the Second World War and the emergence of the spiritual crisis are all the reasons for the formation of the Beat Generation literature whereas the prevalenceof mass culture and consumerism, experience of personal growth and the influence ofcultural context are the reasons for the formation of China’s Post-eighties literature.The second chapter focuses on the different experiences and attitudes toward life ofthe Beat Generation and China’s Post-eighties. It mainly compares the life experiences ofthe Beat Generation and what they lost on the road with the life experiences of China’sPost-eighties and their befuddlement in the process of growth.The third chapter is the comparison of the writing styles of the Beat Generationwriters and China’s Post-eighties writers, introducing the spontaneous writing of the BeatGeneration writers and the ich-form writing of China’s Post-eighties writers first. Andthen comparison in the application of post-modernism in both of their works can be seenclearly.The forth chapter mainly involves the common theme of the Beat Generationliterature and China’s Post-eighties literature—self-discovery in rebellion. It analyzesthe masterpieces of these two literary trends respectively. The theme of self-discovery ofthe Beat Generation in self-indulgence is reflected in On the Road; the theme ofself-discovery of China’s Post-eighties in befuddlement is represented in Three-LayeredDoor and Never-Flower in Never-Dream.The third part is the conclusion which shows that despite the common feature intheme, the motives and purposes of rebellion in the Beat Generation literature andChina’s Post-eighties literature are of entire difference, through which it is not toodifficult for readers to see the basic difference not only in politics and the economybetween China and the United States, but also in the profound significance of the easternand western social ideologies.