C.T.Hsia’s Literary Criticism And The Cultural Cold War

Since 1980 s,the academic circles have been discussing C.T.Hsia in an endless stream.According to the current research,the academic circle gives him a positive evaluation.However,if we look at C.T.Hsia’s A History of Modern Chinese Fiction from the background of The Cold War,we will find that it can be popular in Taiwan due to the political factors.C.T.Hsia’s literary criticism was able to enter Taiwan because of his stance of the anti-communist.A History of Modern Chinese Fiction simplified the narrative of left-wing literature and highlighted liberal writers such as Eileen Chang,Qian Zhongshu and Shen Congwen,presenting an obvious Cold War mentality.The thesis is divided into three parts to discuss the Cold War thinking in C.T.Hsia’s literary criticism.The first part makes a specific explanation of C.T.Hsia entering into Taiwan literary circle.C.T.Hsia appeared in Taiwan’s literary world when he published The Short Novels of Eileen Chang in the Literary Magazine,which gave Eileen Chang a very high evaluation.The relationship between Literary Magazine and United States Information Service is ambiguous,and the Yangko by Eileen Chang,which C.T.Hsia emphasized on,has a distinct tendency of anti-communist.Both of they have a subtle relationship with the Cold War.The second part discusses the argument between C.T.Hsia and Prusek in order to explore the Cold War factor in C.T.Hsia’s literary criticism.C.T.Hsia and Prusek belong to different ideological camps.Their contradictions come not only from different literary concepts and research methods,but also from different political positions.The third part focuses on the Controversy between Yan Yuanshu and C.T.Hsia”,analyzing the reasons why C.T.Hsia and Yan Yuanshu’s literary criticism concepts formed.Both C.T.Hsia and Yan Yuanshu were deeply influenced by the new criticism.The former had to separate literature from reality because of Taiwan’s social environment,and the latter was not bound by Taiwan’s political environment,his literary concepts were confined to the West.C.T.Hsia’s literary criticism entered Taiwan in the 1957,and spread to the mainland in the 1980 s,and exerted a significant influence on the mainland academic circles.The reason why C.T.Hsia’s literary criticism is highly valued by mainland academic circles is related to the mainstream narrative system that is different from the mainland,and the formation of this system is inseparable from the support of the Cold War background.