五四后小品文中的西方文学想象 = WESTERN LITERARY IMAGINATION IN LIANG YUCHUN'S ESSAY WRITING

Abstract

The literary landscape has transformed tremendously after the Literary Revolution of 1917 amidst the wave of New Culture Movement. Modern essay, or xiaopin has emerged to be a popular form of writing in the New Literature and perhaps the greatest triumph of baihua style. Recent studies have been focusing on the relationship between modern xiaopin and traditional literature as Zhou Zuoren once defined xiaopin as a combination of western Belle Letres and Chinese prose writing from the Ming Dynasty. C.T Hsia discussed in History of Modern Chinese Fiction, that the nature of this connection as a “personal necessity” for “traditional moral feelings and aesthetic preferences" in the post May Fourth era. However, Charles A. Laughlin argues that Hsia's explanations might have exaggerated the contrast between a ‘traditional’ sensibility and a modern experience. To him, xiaopin was a product of leisure and it aimed at finding connections with the past to create a national identity in modern times. Resembling Susan Daruvala's understanding of Zhou Zuoren's literature works, Charles explained that there are bigger political and social agendas behind the modern xiaopin writings. The nature and origin of modern xiaopin is complex and multi-dimensional. It encompasses occidental and oriental elements, with traditional and modern aspects. This essay aspires to re-examine this issue from a different perspective. Instead of focusing on the vertical dimensions between the modern and the traditional literature, this paper drew a parallel comparison of the western imaginations in xiaopin writings across the contemporary writers. The comprehensive citing of western literature in xiaopin depicts the literary imagination outlined by the writers. These imaginations could give us an idea of literates' understanding of western literature and the agendas behind embracing such western concepts. This essay will be focusing on the less commonly studied essay writer, Liang Yuchun (1906-1932), to understand his western literary imagination and find the explanation for this understanding as oppose to other writers of the same epoch. This paper serves as a complement to the recent studies and gives a more complete and holistic understanding of development of xiaopin genre after the May Fourth Movement.