New Taiwanese Literature

Transcription

Taiwan literature in the 1970s: When studying the history of Taiwan literature generally speaking, we regard the 1970s as the period of Taiwan Nativist Literature In this period novel was the main genre Why was Taiwan Nativist Literature popular in the 1970s? What's its context? and what's its characteristics? The 1960s was a period for Modernist Literature Why did it emerge in the 1960s? It's a response to Anti-Communist Literature in the 1950s Anti-Communist Literature was overwritten with outdated themes and writing styles The readers completely lost interest so did the writers Thus, Anti-Communist Literature had graduadually declined in the middle of the 1950s This triggered writers to find new materials to write For example, the literature students at NTU Pai Hsien-yung, Wang Wen-hsing Lucy Chen, and Ouyang Tzu published a magazine called Modern Literature and introduced western classics as well as literary theories Their refreshing thoughts led to the period of Modernist Literature in the 1960s In Modernist Literature the capitalism had been well-developed Lots of people moved to cities where they experienced great loneliness, alienation, and detachment These are keys to the modernist novels However, compared to the west the caplitalism in Taiwan in the 1960s was near the starting point The Taiwanese hadn't experienced great loneliness, alienation, and detachment in cities Modernist novels were written with excellent techniques but they're unrelated to the experiences in Taiwan There's a large gap between the novel's world and the real world It's unrelated to the real life in Taiwan At this time, the Taiwanese writers like Huang Chunming, Chen Yingzhen and Wang Zhenhe began to publish their works at the end of the 1960s What's their topic? The nobodies' life in Taiwan The nobodies are mostly simple and kind Where do they live? Rural villages and towns It's why we call the 1970s a period for Taiwan Nativist Literature To learn more about Taiwan Nativist Literature we can start with its two themes: the love of land and the problem of capitalism The first is the love of land As I just mentioned the story takes place in rural places They're close to nature Nature is the origin of all life It's highlighted in the novels The land is so lovely despite that it may be suffered from disasters like floods, typhoons, and earthquakes the natural forces out of human control Though the nature is fierce people still believe that they can overcome their troubles with a determined mind They learn from the circle of nature to face all the adversity and keep their life going The theme is commonly depicted by Huang Chunming Second, in the 1970s villages there're some problems of capitalism further causing the wealth gap and class problems Apart from Huang's romantic depiction of nature some writers turned to criticize the problem of capitalism in their novels We just mentioned Chen Yingzhen In some of his novels he dealt with these issues In addition people like Wang Tuoh and Song Zelai also followed this path When we read a novel the first thing we should pay attention to is what exactly the novel is talking about What's its theme? A theme is different from a summary in which you just tell a brief story A theme is to grasp the novel and explain what exactly it is trying to convey in a few words In the "Story of Grandpa Ching-fan" it's Grandpa Ching-fan's interaction with his grandson A-Ming What can we learn from this interaction? As I mentioned before we can learn the theme that Huang Chunming emphasized the most: people's connection with their lands When we read a novel how can we grasp its theme? How to read a novel? When reading a novel how can we analyze it to grasp the whole novel in a very short time? In the village of Huang's novel why are there so many old people and children? Some students mentioned that it's because young people move out to work Indeed, it's a common problem in rural villages When you read this novel you'll find that old people keep talking to their grandchildren: "You'll inherit all of my lands in the future" Why don't they give the lands to their sons? When reading you have to ask a lot of questions in your mind Why don't they give to their sons? Obviously, their sons don't want to live in the rural villages following the schedule of nature all the times Huang's novels have reflected this phenomenon for a long time while he didn't criticize it directly Instead, he hid his criticism in between the lines There're a lot of ways to read a novel: to analyze its imagery, its connotation and characters' interrelationship and to feel the warmth and sorrow in between the lines As long as you take time to read you can find some interesting aspects In the "Story of Grandpa Ching-fan" Grandpa Ching-fan mentions scarecrows but he doesn’t call them scarecrows he calls them brothers instead Why? What's the difference between brothers and scarecrows? Scarecrows are objects They are something physical But what are brothers? Brothers are our blood relatives So, of course, scarecrows mean different to us if we call them brothers Why are scarecrows called brothers? On the one hand Grandpa Ching-fan seems lonely in the village Yes, it's true He can just talk to his little grandson On the other hand we can refer to what we've mentioned: the reason why scarecrows are called brothers is related to the connection between countrymen and their lands Therefore, in this condition everything in nature seems close to countrymen Even a scarecrow is like their brother The nomination is symbolic It doesn't help us to learn more about the things Instead it shows us a certain kind of affection The affection has historical and cultural imporatnce It shows the connection between human beings and lands For some students, the "Story of Grandpa Ching-fan" may be a very simple story Actually, it's simple What can we learn from it? We need to learn from the details The details don't merely tell us a phenomenon Behind the phenomenon, it shows some significant aspects in history, culture and even religion It's worth your attention