Xuezhao Literary Creation In Yan'an Period

"Yenan literature and art, which plays an important role in the history of Chinese modern literature and art, has pointed out a new direction for Chinese literature and art.But as more than half a century passed by, Yenan literature and art is unprecedentedly oppugned, and is fading away from the historical memory. Therefore, it is necessary to reconsider the value and significance of research on Yenan literature and art." The research is still to be furthered. At that time, as a large number of intellectuals came to Yenan, Yenan became a famous cultural centre. Many well-known writers, to different degrees, accomplished their transformations in literature composition.This paper chooses one typical author-Chen Xuezhao, to study the transformations in her works and thoughts during Yenan period. This paper analyses her Yenan-period works to reveal the changes in her works and the underlying meaning of the changes, furthermore, to explain the influence of Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art on the writers’ thoughts and compositions. By discussing her three trips with three different identities of compositions in Yenan, this paper explores the mental pilgrimage of Chinese authors. The structure of this paper is listed as below.Introduction:Introduce Chen Xuezhao’s life experiences briefly, define the "Yenan period", review the present researches, explain the reasons of choosing this topic and the innovation of this thesis.Chapter oneAnalyze her works of her early life as a comparison to her later works in Yenan.Chapter twoConduct a research on her interview in Yenan (Chen Xuezhao was the first female journalist who went to Yenan as a free visitor, and she wrote this book during that period)Chapter threeDuring the second time she went to Yenan, she experienced the Rectification Movement, the Great Production Movement and the Review of Cadres. The thesis specially discusses the difficult transformation of her spirit and composition of literature after she participated in the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art. She changed her writing style from the description of her personal feelings to actively advocating the concept that "literature and art is supposed to serve workers, peasants and soldiers". The main change of her production of literature is that she switched the emotional narrations of intellectuals to the straightforward description of the figures and reports of their stories. Her critical attitude towards the reality also transformed into the praise of new life in Liberated District and heroes from the workers, peasants and soldiers.Chapter fourConduct a research on her works after the victory of Anti-Japanese War, including the reportage "Walking in the Liberated District", the short novel collection "New Predestined Relationship in the Cabinet" and the long novel "Working is Beautiful". Although Chen Xuezhao tried hard to stick closer to the "worker-peasant-soldier" literature, these works still revealed a gender tendency which did not conform to the mainstream.This paper studies into Chen Xuezhao’s Yenan-period works composed during her returned to China in1935and went to Yenan for three times, to unveil her difficult transformation in literature and its causes in that unique period. Through this research, we can also analyze the spiritual pilgrimage of the female intellectuals of new generation during that period.