Scar literature
Years active | 1978 Onwards |
---|---|
Location | Mainland China |
Major figures | Liu Xinwu Zhang Chengzhi |
Influences |
|
Scar literature | |
---|---|
Hanyu Pinyin | Shānghén wénxué |
Scar literature or literature of the wounded (Chinese: 伤痕文学; pinyin: shānghén wénxué) is a genre of Chinese literature which emerged in the late 1970s during the "Boluan Fanzheng" period, soon after the death of Mao Zedong, portraying the sufferings of cadres and intellectuals during the experiences of the Cultural Revolution and the rule of the Gang of Four.[1]
Historical background
During the
Unlike the mass revolutionary art of the
Examples
The first exemplar of the genre is generally agreed to be Chen Ruoxi's 1974 short story "The Execution of Mayor Yin" (尹縣長). The story was first published in November 1974 on Mingpao Monthly (vol 107, pp.97-105).[6]
Another examplar is
Most of the representative authors were in their thirties and forties at the time; they worked as salaried writers and editors, and published their works in state-sponsored literary journals.[9] The moral outrage they expressed in their works resonated with the public, contributing to its popularity.[10]
Not all works by authors who lived through the Cultural Revolution can be classified as scar literature. Zhang Chengzhi in particular is notable for his idealism regarding his experiences during the Cultural Revolution; his works such as Black Steed and Rivers of the North have been described as rebuttals to the "negativism of scar literature".[11]
Responses
Scar literature did not entirely receive a free pass from the Party establishment; due to its criticisms of the
See also
- Cultural Revolution
- Boluan Fanzheng
- Reform and Opening-up
References
Citations
- ^ Chen 1996: 160
- ^ a b Watson 1992: 107-108
- ^ Liu 2003: 24
- ^ Chen 1996: 161
- OCLC 503828045.
- ^ Chen Ruoxi (1974). "The Execution of Mayor Yin (尹縣長)". Mingpao Monthly (明報月刊). 107: 97-105.
- ^ Chen et al. 2004: xiv-xvii
- ^ Xie 2000
- ^ Siu and Stern 1983: xxxviii
- ^ Watson 1992: 106
- ^ McDougall and Louie: 395-396
- ^ Berry 2004: 92-93
- ^ a b Harding 1987: 188
- ^ White 1998: 166-168
Sources
- Berry, Chris (2004). Postsocialist Cinema in Post-Mao China: The Cultural Revolution After the Cultural Revolution. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-94786-3.
- Chen, Xiaoming (1996). "The Disappearance of Truth: From Realism to Modernism in China". In Chung, Hilary (ed.). In the Party Spirit: Socialist Realism and Literary Practice in the Soviet Union, East Germany, and China. Rodopi. pp. 158–166. ISBN 905183957X.
- Chen, Ruoxi; Goldblatt, Howard; Ing, Nancy (2004). The Execution of Mayor Yin and Other Stories from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-21690-7.
- Harding, Harry (1987). China's Second Revolution: Reform After Mao. Brookings Institution Press. ISBN 0-8157-3461-1.
- McDougall, Bonnie S.; Kam, Louie (1997). The Literature of China in the Twentieth Century. C. Hurst and Co. ISBN 1-85065-285-6.
- Liu, Jianmei (2003). Revolution Plus Love: Literary History, Women's Bodies, and Thematic Repetition in Twentieth-Century China. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-2586-1.
- Siu, Helen F.; Stern, Zelda (1983). Mao's Harvest: Voices from China's New Generation. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-503499-6.
- Watson, Andrew (1992). Economic Reform and Social Change in China. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-06973-4.
- White, Lynn (1996). Local Causes of China's Intellectual, Legal, and Governmental Reforms. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-7656-0149-4.
- Xie, Xinhua (2000). 《班主任》不是伤痕文学 [The Class Monitor is not scar literature]. The Journal of the Teacher's College, Qingdao University (in Chinese (China)). 17 (1).