Chapter Two. Literary norms and the literary environment

Abstract

During the 'contemporary literature' period, the Chinese and foreign cultural heritage, especially the attitude towards foreign literature, was a sensitive and important issue. During the 1950s and 1960s, the recommendation and reception of literary heritage was directly related to the state of contemporary ideological trends and literary campaigns. Between the 1950s and the 1970s, this was the most important, and at times the only, obligation of literary criticism. Under most circumstances, literary criticism was not an individualized or scientific explication of a text, nor was it an exercise in appreciation, but a means of adjudication embodying political intentions with regard to literary activities and opinions. The changes and shifts in positions of writers during the 1950s were the result of the typological delineation of authors and literary groups begun in the late 1940s by the left-wing literary powers to establish a new direction for literature. Keywords: Chinese culture heritage; contemporary literature period; left-wing literary powers; literary campaigns; literary criticism