A Study Of Confrontational Aesthetics In Today (1978-1980)

In the late 1970 s,Today,founded by Beidao,Munk and others,appeared as a folk journal,showing different characteristics from the mainstream literature.Its "heterogeneity" brought new creative direction to the literature in the new era,and became an important topic in the history of literature.Today appeared after the "Cultural Revolution",because of the great influence of the times,antagonism came into being from the beginning.They strive to complete the political confrontation from the language revolution,effectively reverse the aesthetic mediocrity and institutional discourse,stand on the edge of the civil stand opposite to the mainstream,and form an independent intellectual group.The "heterogeneity" of Today is rooted in the antagonism defined by the special background and founding purpose,so the analysis of its significance and value has to start from "antagonism".The reason why the concept of "antagonistic aesthetics" is used is that in addition to writing antagonism and expressing the spirit and position of antagonism,the "antagonism" is regarded as the aesthetic standard to establish a whole set of systems,and finally to achieve the philosophy of dealing with itself,literature and art and the real world throughout.The early Today only existed for a short two years in the complex context of the early literature in the new era,and it was almost forgotten and covered by the orthodox literature history narrative for a long time,but its "antagonistic aesthetics" still has important significance and exploration value for the literature in the new era and even the whole literature history.This paper will take a look at Today from the perspective of "antagonism",and try to explore the ideological core and spiritual resources of Today’s antagonistic aesthetics through the combination of internal research and external research of the text,and examine its role at that time and even at present,so as to reconfirm the status of Today in literature and literary history.The structure of this paper is as follows:The introduction explains the concept of "antagonistic aesthetics",points out its connotation and particularity,and points out the value and significance of the topic.This paper briefly reviews the general path,achievements and limitations of the current academic research on Today,and expounds the research direction of the paper.The first chapter discusses the generation of antagonistic aesthetics from the multiple backgrounds of Today.From secret writing to the opening of public space,the secret spreading way of "underground poetry" gathers rich literary capital fortoday.From subjective impulse to historical opportunity,the revolutionary impulse of Beidao and other intellectuals to join in the historical trend has not disappeared.The members who participated in the founding of Today share the same aspiration and have strong will support.The mental concussion caused by the September 13 incident and the blow caused by Shanshan’s death have become the subjective factors of the confrontation.In terms of historical objective,in the early 1978 democratization movement,"Xidan Wall" came into being,which was loose in politics.Today was created in time and survived in the crack of the wave of ideological liberation.The second chapter is based on the creation text of Today,which is regarded as a comprehensive publication.It explores the specific presentation of Today’s antagonistic aesthetics from poetry,novels and other literary or non literary text forms.The skeptical world view and defamiliarized aesthetic experience in poetry become the core of confrontation,which is against ideology and language mediocrity.Compared with the "Scar Literature" of the same generation,the novel is more mature and profound in ideological connotation and artistic techniques.Literary criticism,prose essays and other literary genres directly express their opinions or indirectly reveal their intentions through translation and introduction,which also contribute to the value of confrontation that can not be ignored.They also adopt the form of super literature to cooperate,reflecting the various confrontations of Today as an independent literary movement.The third chapter studies the social activities and debates of Today from the outside.By combing the historical materials of Today,it analyzes the ways of voice and discourse strategies it adopts in the face of the public and the official journals,and explores the ways and positions it takes to realize the confrontation aesthetics in specific activities and debates.It is clear that the means to realize the antagonistic aesthetics of Today include the opening of public space and the holding of social activities,both of which provide a platform for its voice;it discusses the position and posture of Today,from its publication to its conflict with "Scar Literature",to the internal division of the editorial Department,as well as its ambiguous relationship with the official journal and "obscure poetry" and other complex historical sites to discuss Today transcendence and intervention.The fourth chapter analyzes the spiritual tradition and theoretical resources of "antagonism" in Today from the perspective of influence research,including local tradition,Russian Soviet resources,western modernism literature and theory.Today’sreturn to human nature continues the spirit of the May 4th movement.The "hazy" in art is influenced by the implicit aesthetic style of the "nine leaf poetry school" and the language crisis of rebelling against political oppression.At the same time,it discusses how to turn foreign resources into its own theoretical basis.The inner communication of Russian and Soviet literature and the quality that intellectuals dare to tell the truth in front of power will become the spiritual support of Today.Today also obtains the modern thought enlightenment from the western modernism,and uses its artistic technique to express this kind of heresy thought.The fifth chapter evaluates the value of Today’s antagonistic aesthetics and analyzes its unique significance in the new era literature and the history of Chinese literature.Today advocates individual liberation and ideological freedom,confronts literary "norms" with a marginal attitude,and consciously establishes new aesthetic forms and artistic forms,which should be regarded as the beginning of literature in the new era.Today also brings enlightenment and experience to Chinese literature.In the essence of literature,the pursuit of truth,goodness and beauty,the rational attitude of intellectuals in the face of history and the brave voice in the face of power are still meaningful at present.The personal narration of Today also puts forward another possibility for the writing of literary history,but also explores the inevitable limitations of Today’s antagonistic aesthetics.The conclusion part summarizes the spiritual tradition and literary experience of the antagonistic aesthetics of Today(1978-1980)in the early stage,and makes a brief description of the later suspension of Today to the resumption of the times.