A Study On The Great Series Of Chinese New Literature (1917-1927) And The Canonization Of The "May 4th" Local Literature

As an anthology of first decade of Chinese new literature,the Great Series of Chinese New Literature has an important literary historical value.Meanwhile,as a systematic literary series that compiles and contains the theories,debates,trends,genres,historical materials and works of the "May 4th" new literary,the Series has a peculiar and crucial significance in the canonization of the "May 4th" new literature.To a certain extent,the Series is a witness,participant and influencer of the canonization of the "May 4th" new literature.If the Great Series of Chinese New Literature is the fruit formed by the "May 4th" new literature elites and the New Culture Movement pioneers,the "May 4th" local literature will be one of the unique branches.Focusing on the relationship between the Great Series of Chinese New Literature and the "May 4th" new literature canonization,this study intends to explore the actual influence of the Series on the canonization of the "May 4th" new literature from a combined perspective of synchronicity and diachronicity,in order to contribute to the improvement of the canonical knowledge pedigree of modern Chinese local literature.This article is divided into five parts beyond the introduction:Part one mainly discusses the emergence contexts of the Great Series of Chinese New Literature and the "May 4th" local literature.It pinpoints that influenced by the modernity of "Western culture and civilization",the publishing industry in Shanghai,where the publisher(Liangyou Press)of the Series was located,gradually introduced a market-oriented operation mechanism to promote the industrial prosperity,which guaranteed the birth of the Series.The "Retro current" during the "May 4th" ebb period enabled the comrades of the New Culture Movement to acknowledge the importance of concentrating the achievements and defending the legitimacy of new literature,which strengthened their intention to collect and compile the Great Series of Chinese New Literature.The contrast between actual richness and typical "false" deficiency of vernacular writings,as well as the new litterateurs' strong desire for self-confirmation under the then public opinion disputes also partially constitute the cultural context for the publishing of the Series.In the meanwhile,the prominent local problems in Chinaaround the "May 4th" prompted the rising of the "May 4th" local literature,which provided basic possibility and problem domain for the local literature canonization.Part two tries to reveal the construction of local literature creation mode under the influence of editorial concept of the Great Series of Chinese New Literature,as well as its role in the canonization of the "May 4th" local literature.It claims that the editorial concept of the Series emphasizes realism,so that the relevant editors gave realistic considerations to the subject,content,theme,characters,plot structure,etc.of texts when selecting the "May 4th" local literature works,thus forming a creation pattern with realistic tendencies.This pattern laid a foundation for the later "local realism" creation mode in the local literature canonization.In Part three,the Great Series of Chinese New Literature: Indexes of Historical Materials is explored in depth,and the unique value of historical materials therein for the "May 4th" local literature canonization is sought.It argues that the partial data on the "May 4th" local litterateurs and their societies in the Society Profiles and Author Biographies are important assistant materials for studying the local litterateurs and associations recorded in the Series,which directly prompted the appearance of relevant writers and literary societies during the canonization process of "May 4th" local literature.Based on the prefaces of the Great Series of Chinese New Literature: Novel Collection I and the Great Series of Chinese New Literature: Novel Collection II,Part four probes into the role of literary criticism in the Series in the "May 4th" local literature canonization.It points out that the application of realistic criticism approach,the identification of critical category as the realistic trend and literary popularization sign and the establishment of rather realistic criticizing criteria in the prefaces are directly influential to the selection of "May 4th" local literature works into the Series,which in turn indirectly affect the canonization process of the works,thereby facilitating the canonization of realistic local literature,and somewhat obscuring the non-realistic local lyrical literature.Moreover,such a criticism system further influenced the overall outlook of local literary classics in the later history of literature.Part five reviews and reflects on the Great Series of Chinese New Literature and the canonization problem of "May 4th" local literature,claiming that the Series forgedthe "May 4th" local literary classics in a literary historical sense.Nevertheless,the Series also led to the weak canonicity of selected works to a certain extent,which obscured some lyrical and non-realistic local literature works.The topic of the Great Series of Chinese New Literature and "May 4th" local literature canonization should only be studied by viewing the Series' value and significance to the modern and contemporary Chinese literature histories in an objective and dialectical manner.