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Change and Un-change: Bian Zhilin’s Struggles in the War Time, 1937-1958

Kong, Xueying
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu148043197617731

Abstract Details

2016, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, East Asian Languages and Literatures.
This thesis analyzes the heterogeneous works of Bian Zhilin (1910-2000), a famous modern Chinese poet, during 1937-1958, a relatively understudied period of his career in the extant scholarship. In particular, I focus on his wartime poetry in the poetry collection Letters of Comfort (Weilaoxin ji), his wartime novel Mountains and Rivers (Shanshan shuishui), and his decision to burn the manuscript of the latter in the 1950s. In reading these texts closely, particularly the novel, within their literary and historical contexts, I demonstrate that this period is crucial in Bian Zhilin’s career as it bridges his prewar life and his post-1949 acclimation to the new socialist regime. More specific, I argue that the change and un-change paradox/dialectic, or the collision and collusion of maintaining inner autonomy and participating in historical transformation, underlie all of Bian’s works in the wartime. It is first shown in his Yan’an poetry, then fully manifested in the novel Mountains and Rivers, and further demonstrated in his post-1949 literary pursuits. To reconcile the inner and outer orientations of self, Bian constructs a notion of “spiral movement,” which again plays with the dialectic of change and un-change, to restore the traditional harmony of self. An overview of Bian’s career and life since the war demonstrates that “spiral movement” acts not only as an instruction for Bian to write the novel, but also as his schematization of the world and a guiding principle of his life. In so doing, I try to overthrow the commonly-held label of Bian Zhilin as merely a poet in current scholarship and reveal his multifaceted persona. I also argue against the popular view that the incomplete novel Mountains and Rivers was a waste of Bian Zhilin’s creative energy and a disruption in his poetic career, and unravel the complicated aesthetics, thought, and character of Bian manifested in the novel. Furthermore, through studying the case of Bian Zhilin, I discuss some larger issues in relation to Chinese modernity and intellectuals at a moment of particularly dehumanizing tendencies in modern Chinese history. With two consecutive wars—the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and the Chinese Civil War (1945-1949), the period of 1937 to 1958 is a tumultuous and rapidly changing time in the history of Chinese modernity. As an intellectual at ease with both Chinese and Western culture, Bian’s struggles and transformations in this period provide us with a unique window to investigate important issues such as the interrelationship between social engagement and intellectual independence, artistic autonomy and political demands, as well as tradition and modernity.
Kirk Denton (Advisor)
Meow Hui Goh (Committee Member)
132 p.
Asian Literature; Literature; Modern Literature
heterogeneous works of Bian Zhilin, Chinese Poet, Struggles in the War Time, 1937-1958, wartime poetry, Letters of Comfort

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kong, X. (2016). Change and Un-change: Bian Zhilin’s Struggles in the War Time, 1937-1958 [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu148043197617731

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kong, Xueying. Change and Un-change: Bian Zhilin’s Struggles in the War Time, 1937-1958. 2016. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu148043197617731.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kong, Xueying. "Change and Un-change: Bian Zhilin’s Struggles in the War Time, 1937-1958." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu148043197617731

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.