A Study Of The "Childlike" Quality In Shen Congwen’s Literary Creation

When reviewing his literary creation,Shen Congwen once said that his "passion for creation stems from his inner childish fantasy",which shows that "childishness" is an important factor in Shen’s literary creation and a key point to reveal the uniqueness of his literary creation.Looking at Shen’s literary creation from the perspective of "child’s heart",three types of child’s heart can be carefully differentiated: natural child’s heart,"alienated" child’s heart,and poetic child’s heart.Natural childishness is the initial appearance of childishness in Shen Congwen’s works.Firstly,it is analyzed at the level of the writer’s creation,which is manifested in the way Shen focuses on sensory,intuitive and imaginative perceptual experiences,thus forming the impressionistic and loose characteristics of the text,which is a concrete manifestation of the child’s "I-oriented thinking" influencing Shen’s creation.Secondly,from the analysis of the characters,the "country people" under Shen Congwen’s writing are typical images rich in "childishness".They are like small beasts wielding the vigor of life,playing in the songs,and the characters are simple and innocent without wit.The "alienated" child mind is literally a concept that deviates from the natural child mind.Unlike the concept of "alienation" in philosophy,the "alienation" discussed in this paper is interpreted by the "urban-rural model" constructed by Shen Congwen,which refers to the character’s original childlike sensitivity after entering the urban market.After the character enters the urban market,his original childlike perceptive talent and free nature are bound by the world’s utilitarian view,that is,the "natural childlike heart" is constantly being worn down.The poetic child mind is a rejection of the process of "alienation" of the child mind,but also a deepening of the natural child mind.Sukhomlinsky once said that every child is a poet by nature,and this poetic nature refers to "aesthetics".Here,the poetic child’s heart refers to the transcendental aesthetic ability of the character subject who has avoided the "alienation" of his childish sensual talent and sublimated based on the keen sensibility and abundant imagination of the child’s natural child’s heart.Aesthetics is also an important theme in Shen Congwen’s literary creation.From the perspective of a child’s heart,"child’s heart" is the root of the rational paradigm of "human beauty" in Shen’s mind.As a result,a poetic style of beauty and sorrow was derived from Shen’s creative works.Behind the poetic style is Shen’s love and untiring pursuit of beauty even after he recognized the cruelty and absurdity of the world,between his "childish heart" and "phantasy".All of this ultimately comes down to his pursuit of "divinity".