A Study Of "Wang Meng Phenomenon" In The 1990s

"Wang Meng Phenomenon" refers to the discussion on various cultural topics triggered and extended since 1993 around Wang Meng’s "Avoiding the Sublime" and other articles and different opinions on the call for humanistic spirit by some young and middle-aged scholars in Shanghai.Among them,Wang Meng is not only the object of cultural discussion,but also one of the important participants in the discussion,which gradually formed the "Wang Meng phenomenon" with Wang Meng as the focus,constituting the most striking cultural hot spot in the mid-1990 s.In the 1990 s,the reform of economic system and the transformation of society caused the change of cultural environment,and the emergence of consumer culture,mass media,capital and other new factors affecting cultural development,these new cultural factors active the original cultural field,gradually forming a pluralistic and free new cultural field.Therefore,the cultural environment in the 1990 s presents typical characteristics of transformation,bringing new opportunities for cultural inheritance and development.At the same time,the contradiction between old and new cultural factors is increasingly revealed,among which the contradiction between popular culture and serious culture is the most prominent.Wang Shuo,who was very popular in the market,was regarded as a typical of "kitsch".However,Wang Meng was criticized by some intellectuals because of his affirmation of the value of his existence in articles such as "Avoiding the Lofty" and "The Sense of the Human Spirit".In this regard,many articles were held,and Wang Meng gradually became an important participant in the cultural discussion.The debate involved a wide range of writers and scholars,including Wang Meng,Wang Binbin,Zhang Chengzhi,Wang Xiaoming,Dang Shengyuan,etc.The debate covered many topics,such as cultural mentality,moral judgment,and revolutionary reflection.Therefore,"Wang Meng Phenomenon" is a cultural phenomenon with multiple explanatory space in the literature history of the 1990 s,which contains the conflict of intellectual cultural mentality,value scale and social concept in the period of social transformation.This paper takes "Wang Meng Phenomenon" as the research object,focuses on the cultural discussions that Wang Meng participated in and carried out around him in the 1990 s,sorts out the discussion of various cultural topics in the 1990 s,and takes Wang Meng as a case to deeply analyze the cultural mentality of Wang Meng and relevant intellectuals in "Wang Meng Phenomenon".At the same time,this paper will also investigate the significance of "Wang Meng phenomenon" as the existence of literary history,explain the value of "Wang Meng Phenomenon" to the writing of literary history in the 1990 s from the perspective of literary history,and in connection with the current cultural context,explore the contemporary cultural value of "Wang Meng phenomenon".Aside from the introduction and conclusion,the text is primarily divided into four chapters:The first chapter mainly combs out three key topics in "Wang Meng phenomenon".With the cultural discussions of "avoiding the sublime",Wang Meng and Zhang Chengzhi,and Zhang Wei and Wang Binbin as the core,this paper sorts out the cultural views and attitudes of Wang Meng and other scholars in the debate,and presents the differences of views on each topic by combining the on-site historical materials of both sides of the debate.The second chapter focuses on Wang Meng’s literary creation and personal experience,examines Wang Meng’s thinking and exploration of literary creation,the cultural tendency revealed in his works and the twists and turns of his life experience,so as to have a more comprehensive understanding of Wang Meng’s cultural mentality and interpret the complex causes of his multiple postures in the debate of "Wang Meng Phenomenon" in the 1990 s.The third chapter mainly discusses the cultural mentality of intellectuals involved in "Wang Meng Phenomenon".The complicated debates in the 1990 s reflected the internal identity and ideal differences of intellectuals in the context of The Times.Intellectuals carried their own discourse resources and knowledge structure into the cultural scene.Many debates reflected the identification and differentiation of intellectuals’ cultural attitudes,which was a typical cultural landscape under the collision and integration of diverse cultures in the 1990 s.At the same time,in the "Wang Meng Phenomenon",Wang Meng and Wang Shuo are highly consistent in their cultural attitudes,and they are often refuted by critics who assume that they are bound together as a "discourse alliance".However,a close study of their personal historical experience shows that the differences in knowledge structure brought about by the differences in their discourse backgrounds contain different cognitive motivations behind their consistent cultural gestures.The fourth chapter mainly investigates the significance of "Wang Meng phenomenon" as a literary history.From the perspective of literary history,the supplement and counterproof effect of "Wang Meng Phenomenon" on the construction of the literary history in the 1990 s is studied.It promotes the generation of the cultural landscape in the 1990 s together with the cultural phenomenon of the same period,but the multificated debates in it are biased and lacking to some extent.At the same time,the "Wang Meng phenomenon" is connected with the current cultural environment,and the contemporary cultural value of "Wang Meng phenomenon" is explored from the recognition of the current intellectual’s cultural status and the construction of social culture.