Literary Dissent in Communist China / Merle Goldman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Goldman, Merle, author.

Series:

Harvard East Asian series ; 29.

Harvard East Asian Series ; 29

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

China--Intellectual life.

SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / General.

China.

Local Subjects:

China--Intellectual life.

SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / General.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (366 pages).

Edition:

Reprint 2014

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In modern China, literature has been regarded as a vehicle of political and idea logical dissent, a concept that has persisted under communism. This study exhaustively analyzes the conflict between the Chinese Communist party and the intellectuals, particularly the writers, in the crucial decades of the 1940's and 1950's. By singling out individual writers as egregious examples, party leaders, through a series of thought-control campaigns, have tried to mold intellectuals along orthodox doctrinal lines. But these same leaders, holding to the paradoxical conviction that personal initiative and creativity are necessary catalysts in the effort to construct a Communist state, have not wanted to stifle these qualities altogether. The result has been a pattern of permissiveness and pressure, as illustrated by the ill-fated "Hundred Flowers" movement and the subsequent return to a policy of harsh regimentation. In depicting the views, feelings, frustrations, and tragic fates of many individual intellectuals in the confrontation with an oppressive party bureaucracy, the author reveals, in an unprecedented way, the nature of the authoritarian society that has evolved in Communist China. Her study convincingly demonstrates that totalitarian rule has not guaranteed the subservience of the Chinese intelligentsia and, even more important, that the alienated, critical intellectual remains a significant and vital force.

Contents:

Frontmatter

PREFACE

CONTENTS

PROFILES OF THE MAJOR PROTAGONISTS

ABBREVIATIONS IN TEXT

chapter one. THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE PARTY AND REVOLUTIONARY WRITERS

chapter two. LITERARY OPPOSITION DURING THE YENAN PERIOD

chapter three. CONFLICTS BETWEEN LEFT-WING WRITERS IN THE KMT AREA AND THE CCP

chapter four. RESUMPTION OF THOUGHT REFORM DRIVES IN 1948

chapter five. RE-EMERGENCE OF LITERARY FACTIONS, 1949-1952

chapter six. THE RELAXATION OF 1953 AND THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST FENG HSÜEH-FENG IN 1954

chapter seven. THE HU FENG CAMPAIGN OF 1955

chapter eight. WRITERS BLOOM IN THE HUNDRED FLOWERS MOVEMENT

chapter nine. THE ANTIRIGHTIST DRIVE AGAINST THE WRITERS, 1957-1958

chapter ten. THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD AND HO CH'I-FANG

chapter eleven. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LITERARY DISSENT

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GLOSSARY

INDEX

Backmatter

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

0-674-18883-7

OCLC:

1024027633