Un/forbidden Writings: The Dissemination of "Modern Chinese Literature" through the American Taiwanese Literary Criticism

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 台灣文學研究所 === 107 === Due to the Kuomintang''s strict prohibition on Chinese leftist literature from the 1920s and 30s, as well as the prohibition on writings by authors who stayed in China, most of the dissemination of "modern Chinese literature" was cut...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bing-Shu Li, 李秉樞
Other Authors: 黃美娥
Format: Others
Language:zh-TW
Published: 2019
Online Access:http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/9n24h9
Description
Summary:碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 台灣文學研究所 === 107 === Due to the Kuomintang''s strict prohibition on Chinese leftist literature from the 1920s and 30s, as well as the prohibition on writings by authors who stayed in China, most of the dissemination of "modern Chinese literature" was cut off under the restrictions of the political ideology in postwar Taiwan. However, the texts and historical materials show that, in reality, intellectuals — using either conspicuous or inconspicuous means — were still discussing various problems concerning "modern Chinese literature". I will first unravel the postwar phenomenon of the introduction of "modern Chinese literature" to Taiwan, and then outline the changes of the different historical stages. A key turning point was after the Chinese Communist Party launched the Great Cultural Revolution, which gave rise to a trend of criticizing tradition, denouncing authors from the 1920s and 30s; and the Kuomintang promoting the Chinese Cultural Renaissance Movement, proclaiming itself to be the orthodox inheritor of Chinese culture, as well as commenting on modern Chinese literature, thereby contending for the right to interpretation. This phenomenon reveals how the political situation in East Asia continuously influenced the changes of Taiwan''s literary field. Within this historical context, several works of modern Chinese literary history have successively been published in Taiwan, as well as multiple works discussing the May Fourth Movement and 1930s literature, succinctly surveying modern Chinese literature and causing many works prohibited from being read to start entering the cultural field of Taiwan. This phenomenon has particular historical significance and is worth thoroughly investigating. What needs to be taken note of even more, is that within the Cold War structure, there was also discourse evaluating modern Chinese literature coming from North American academia. I have chosen Pai Hsien-yung, Yang Mu, and Li Yu as research cases. These three are representatives of Taiwan''s modernist literature and have one after the other gone to North America to pursue education, as well as to take up teaching positions within academia. They are not only authors, but are at the same time also scholars, and they have all developed their own discourse regarding "modern Chinese literature", with the purpose of reconsidering literary history''s tradition and development. Unlike in the oppressed Taiwanese society, scholars in North America could freely read works of modern Chinese literature. Their academic understanding, through publishing, acted as intermediary for Taiwan, opening up a vision different from the official discourse, and creating a closely interacting network of relations between North American academia and Taiwan''s literary field. As such, the position of North American scholars is one of the main points this thesis wants to highlight. In reality, these three scholars'' understandings of "modern Chinese literature" have their agreements, but also differences. This thesis, using Sinophone as means for observation, investigates the influence of North American scholars on Taiwan through the works, discourses, and positions of the authors, and then discuss the cultural-political significance of "modern Chinese literature" in Taiwan, to reflect on the existing framework of literary history.