Literature was once exalted by Confucius to the height of governing the country. He thought that literature was "the father of the near, the king of the distant" (meaning that near can serve the parents, far can serve the king). Therefore, no matter which dynasty in history, literature has always been given a lofty mission and value, and even Sima Qian tried his best to use literary language to record those magnificent historical events when writing Historical Records. Until the 1980s, people wore the crown of "engineer of the human soul" on the heads of writers. However, after entering the new century, in the face of the tide of market economy and the advent of the irresistible digital age, literature is like an out-of-favor concubine. Although she still holds the airs of an aristocrat, it is difficult to win the closeness of the public.
According to the statistics of Journal China, written by Sun Yanjun and others, although there are still more than 9000 literary journals in China, most of them are ashamed to make their circulation public. In the 1980s, the circulation of general literary journals could exceed 100000 copies, and the newly published literary books were printed more than 10,000 copies. Today, the number of subscriptions to the most authoritative literary journals in the country will not exceed 100000, and more publications will have a print run of only 1,000 to 2000 copies. Due to the small circulation, there are only a handful of magazines that can be responsible for their own profits and losses, and their contents are adjusted to publish documentary literature or leisure works. At the same time, many newspaper supplements that publish literary works have been revised one after another, replacing "pure literature" with "fast food culture" in the style of sketches. Needless to say, literature has been marginalized from the center of social public opinion, and its social influence has gradually declined, and it has become a dispensable "spiritual leisure product" in public life. As if to awaken people's attention to literature, the "selection of good works for Chinese newspaper supplements" sponsored by the China journalists Association and the China newspaper Supplement Research Association has also included literary works in the selection sequence of the China Journalism Awards, but from the perspective of the winning articles, it is almost all essays and documentary literature that can win the honor, and it is difficult for literary works such as novels, essays and poems to win a place. Under such circumstances, Guangming Daily published an article worriedly: "Literary periodicals at all levels across the country have generally encountered serious market challenges in recent years, and how to survive and develop has become a problem that most literary periodicals have to face and urgently need to solve!" In fact, the marginalization of literature is not only a problem that the press and publishing circles should "face and urgently solve", but also writers should seriously reflect on their own problems, find out the root causes of the marginalization of literature, and find a new way out. Revive literature!
So why is literature marginalized? Many people believe that with the prevalence of commercialism, literature that has been committed to national spirit and soul care is inevitable because it cannot directly engage in material production or commercial transactions, and even comforts itself by saying, "from a worldwide point of view, it is normal that literature is not at the center." I really disagree with this remark. After reaching its peak in the 19th century, European and American literature has been declining since the 20th century, and it has to try its best to prevent literature from falling into the trough in the 21st century. However, the situation of Chinese literature is different from that of Europe and the United States. until the 1980s, Chinese literature was still standing on a high altar and worshiped by the public. the reason why it was left out in the past decade was not affected by the decline of world literature. but is caused by its own "insufficient blood supply". In my opinion, the real reason for the marginalization of Chinese literature is mainly caused by the internal motivation of literature, in addition to the influence of external factors. Here, we might as well sort out the context of the development of contemporary Chinese literature and find out the root causes of the marginalization of literature.
After the new period, no matter how readers praise or criticize literature, the literary world of our country is always very lively. Since "scar literature" and "reflective literature" have attracted people's attention, various schools have been emerging one after another. the emergence of ideological trends such as "avant-garde novel", "root-seeking novel", "neo-realism", "private writing" and "post-modern novel" has formed the situation of literary diversification and brought vitality to the literary world. However, there is one problem that our literary and art circles have been reluctant to admit, that is, most of these pluralistic literary thoughts are influenced by European and American literary theories, and their common feature is to oppose the "uppercase me" and pursue or prefer the "lowercase me". It is under the influence of this trend of thought that many writers are no longer willing to go deep into life to drum up and cry for the people, but rely on memories to write, intentionally or unintentionally, avoiding the fiery real life of positive writing, because they have been separated from life for a long time. As a result, some writers are unable to grasp the current social life, so they have to escape to another time and space that has nothing to do with contemporary life, relying on the fancy shelves from European and American literature schools. Scratching his head and concocting some so-called trendy "masterpieces" that are innocuous and moaning without illness have caused literature to become more and more personal, more and more close to the state of "talking to himself", and completely lose the ability to lead the times. When readers read these works, they can not feel the breath of the times, can not see the contemporary life, characters and ideas, and naturally can not resonate. However, this writing tendency, which weakens the sense of literary weight and the sense of the times, has not been corrected for a long time, how can literature not be marginalized?
The inherent attribute of literature determines that its vitality comes from depicting and eulogizing ideals and sublimity, and can whip the social moth through satire like Gogol and Lu Xun, or like Chekhov and Hugo to explore the essence and root of society by exposing all kinds of social malpractices. However, the current literature lacks these lofty and profound connotations, can not build a spiritual world that can get a little comfort for the public, and even gives up the ultimate care and humanistic spirit, which naturally loses the power to reach the reader's soul. In the face of this literary situation, some people pessimistically believe that because of the writers' lack of sense of mission and group consciousness, coupled with the double impact of the digital age and the commodity society, literature will not only be marginalized, but also gradually disappear in people's field of vision. I do not agree with this conjecture. We should know that human survival not only needs material support, but also inseparable from spiritual life. It can be said that matter is the root, spirit is the soul, and material and spirit are the two fundamentals for people to gain a foothold between heaven and earth. Since human beings cannot lack spiritual life, literature cannot die out. Therefore, the Spanish poet Berkell firmly said: "as long as men and women live in the world, literature will not perish." The Spanish poet's words are the best refutation to the "theory of literary death". There is no doubt that literature will not perish no matter how neglected it is. In my opinion, what we need to discuss at present is not when literature will die, but how to revive the sense of mission and group consciousness of literature, so that the flowers of literature can bloom in the hearts of more people!
In the long history, literature has been the lofty belief supporting the spiritual world of the Chinese nation in every era. Therefore, when material civilization and spiritual civilization are highly developed today, the marginalization of literature can only be temporary. Throughout the current situation of contemporary literature, we have no shortage of rich themes and excellent writers, but also have a great potential reading market, the only lack is close to the reality of heavy works. I believe that as long as our writers can keep pace with the times, get close to life and the public, return to the inherent attribute and spiritual commitment of literature, and restore the enlightening function and aesthetic value of literature, literature will certainly be able to return to the center of the society. and create new glory!
On the bank of the Yi River on March 10, 2015. Author: Jing Yimin
Post a comment