Self And Eros - Shen Congwen's Early Study Of Urban Themes

From 1924 to 1928, Shen Congwen wrote a large number of urban theme works which recorded the realistic situation of a generation of young people in city. The influence of the urban life on the individual is not only reflected in the external pressure of material existence, but also in the repression of the individual physiological desire for love. The difference of social class identity has an expanding influence on the individual's psychological level, which makes Shen Congwen chose to use the power of imagination to express the individual's urban experience, showing the delicate relationship between the individual and the city.Under the need of survival, Shen Congwen had written many urban love novels,which are including pornographic description, catering to the selling point of the popular literature. However, shen congwen created in a serious and sincere attitude,through sexual fantasies to show his continuous thinking of love. At the same time, he tried to explore new forms of writing through irony, characters in the form of autobiographical and consciously artistic reflection.Before the mid 1920s, Yu Dafu's autobiographic novel had set off a popular new literary creation atmosphere. A large number of Shen Congwen's early works influenced by Yu Dafu, but he did not blindly imitate Yu Dafu's autobiographical novel writing mode, but reflected and drawn lessons from Yu Dafu. Although he had common feelings with Yu Dafu in character, emotion and the social reality of the poor youth depression in the aspects of material and desire. But Shen Congwen's characters were closer to China social universal bottom literature youth image. He used more detailed description to write the young people who came from the traditional rural areas, and express their experience of repression and fantasy in the modern city.In the middle and late 1920s, China's new literature had arose a round "love story" writing trend. A description of the urban youth love history, triangle, multi angle and gay love story became the influx of a large number of publications emerge in an endless stream, was becoming a fledgling literature writing mode which young writers rushed to imitate. Shen Congwen's Song Zijun, was showing the complex appearance, reflecting his literary trends and consumption patterns to maintain a vigilant and deliberate refusal.In the city of self and erotic writing, Shen Congwen gradually broke through the popular "autobiography" type of writing pattern and love novels writing predicament,at a certain distance to look at the subject of creation. He continued to explore new way of writing and lay a foundation for relatively mature works after 1928.