On The Spiritual Dilemma Of The Youth During The Turning Period

Jin Fan's "Open Love Letter",Beidao's "Fluctuation" and Liping's "When t he Sunset Disappears" are three novellas secretly created in the 1970 s and pub licly published in the 1980 s.In the history of contemporary Chinese literature,these three novels are regarded as the representative works of underground liter ature in the period of "Cultural Revolution" because of their unique value.The ir uniqueness is mainly embodied in the following aspects: Firstly,the creators of the novel are representatives of a group of young people who were awaken ed earlier during the Cultural Revolution.They have both personal experience and profound thinking about this period of history.These three novels are the crystallization of their thinking.Secondly,a number of young thinkers are creat ed in the novel.These literary images have more or less the characteristics an d shadows of the writers themselves.They reflect the ideological transformatio n of the youth in the 1970 s and the dilemma they faced in finding a way out for their spirit.Thirdly,the period between the creation of the novel and its publication is the period of alternation between the old and the new in Chinese society.Lit erature in this period is still in the central position of social spiritual life.Ther efore,the controversy surrounding these three novels can be regarded as the ec ho of the times,which just reflects the cultural atmosphere and spiritual outloo k of the important turning period in contemporary China.In view of the above particularities,this paper regards these three novels as the "spiritual fossils" of the turning period on the basis of the existing research results,and takes Pan Xiao's discussion,which happened in the same period and has similar themes,as the research object,in order to describe the spiritual state of a generation o f young Chinese people in this turning period and the predicament they are fa cing.For this reason,this paper studies from three aspects: author,works and readers.In the first chapter,the author tries to explain that historical frustration is the main cause of young people's spiritual predicament by starting with the tex t from the angle of writers and restoring the historical scene of novel creation from the two dimensions of their life experience and mental journey in the revolutionary era.Chapter 2 centers on the image of youth created in the text,su ms up the different ways they take to get out of the spiritual predicament they are facing,and sums up the idealists who seek the future,the rebels in the n ihilistic situation and the transcendents of religious feelings,which can be rega rded as the textual presentation of spiritual predicament.Chapter three analyses the reactions and disputes caused by the publication of the three novels from t he perspective of the text recipients.Because there is a close "intertextual relat ionship" between social events and literary creation,this paper also tries to co mpare Pan Xiao's discussion,which has a far-reaching impact in the early peri od of the new era,with the controversy caused by these three novels,in order to explore the embarrassing situation and fate faced by idealism in the turnin g period.Literature should not only pay attention to social process,but also to peop le's spiritual situation.The spiritual predicament of Chinese youth during the tu rning point of the last century is still an unavoidable life problem for Chinese people today.This paper is to discuss these three novels and think about our present and future in a way of returning to history in the new era.