"We often talk about 'slash youth', so should we also encourage slash literary criticism?" Today, meet the 25 classics of Shanghai - 2021-2022 young students to read the classics competition in Shanghai launched, has been serving as the final judge of the critic Wang Jiren believes that young people reading literary classics, may wish to put down the academic model and a certain box, to dare to try new perspectives, horizons, "do not discuss things, completely limited to the work itself, you can be appropriately open, put the work in the dimension of history, the times, and even the literary trend to explore."
Initiated by the Shanghai Literature Development Foundation, the Young Students Reading Literature Classics Competition has been held every two years since 2015, and most of the winners are college students and graduate students, and a few are middle school students. Since the three sessions, the total number of award-winning works has exceeded 280,000 words, and a total of 76 articles have been collected into the "2015-2020 Young Students Reading Classic Competition Award-Winning Works Collection" for online publication.
Most of the works selected for the competition are from the 131-volume "Hundred Literary Libraries of Maritime Literature". This thick "library" selects the representative works of 267 writers who appeared in the Shanghai area from the early 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, with distinctive characteristics of the times and artistic characteristics. For example, Lu Xun's "Good Story", Yu Dafu's "Lost Sheep", Shen Congwen's "Eight Juntu", Liu Naou's "Equation", Xu Jie's "Du Drama", Xu Xi's "Mirror Madness", Qian Zhongshu's "Cat", etc., the judges believe that the selection of these relatively "unpopular" works for students to evaluate also has the intention of changing the stereotype of writers' masterpieces caused by the writing of literary history, "just because there were fewer comments in the past, more independent thinking was needed." ”
Zhou Limin, one of the judges and critics of the competition, said that in addition to Lu Xun's own creations, there are also Qu Qiubai's "Preface to Lu Xun's Miscellaneous Feelings Anthology", Feng Xuefeng's "Memoirs of Lu Xun", Ba Jin's "Remembering Mr. Lu Xun", etc., from different angles, cutting into Mr. Lu Xun with papers, memoirs, essays, impressions, essays, etc.; another feature is to highlight the continuation of the regional characteristics and context of Shanghai, such as many articles with Shanghai as the background or theme, such as Yang Hansheng's "Ten Thousand Family Lights", Yu Ling's "Night Shanghai", Xia Yan's "Under the Eaves of Shanghai" and Mu Shiying's "Shanghai Foxtrot" are all famous articles in history.
"In addition, the elements of non-fiction creation have also been appropriately emphasized, and works based on prose are also one of the most important achievements in the development of new literature, such as Feng Zikai's "Essays on Yuanyuantang" and Lu Li's "Prisoner of Green" and so on." Zhou Limin expects that when young students interpret works, they should not only regard them as technical texts, but also open their own ideas, jump out of the existing box, and feel the spirit and value pursuit of modern Chinese literature.
"The purpose of holding the Contest to Taste and Read Literary Classics is to clean up the source of the original, borrow the online reading methods of the post-information age, promote young people to approach the works of outstanding writers of modern and contemporary Chinese literature, and improve their aesthetic taste and good habits of reading classics." Professor Wang Jiren commented that some authors in the past had considerable knowledge reserves and speculative power, often not limited to discussing things on the spot, but also quoting from the sidelines, linking the writer's life, the era in which they lived and related works, and initially achieved "knowing people and discussing the world". That is, to put a work into a frame of reference composed of the times, literary trends, writer groups, etc. to observe, analyze and comment, jumping out of a single worship and looking up, reflecting the independent character of criticism.
A first prize winner after the 90s once admitted that when he was in junior high school, he read a lot of online novels, and when he got to high school, he felt that this would not work, so he looked for a tome of Chinese and foreign famous works, and the results were very fruitful. In Wang Jiren's view, reading the classics is the right way to open up life, because they accumulate the mind and imagination of the nation and even the entire human race, and as the philosopher Bloom said, in every great work we can identify the thoughts we have neglected; they return to us with a sense of strange dignity.
"Literary criticism is diverse, and what the reading contest advocates to explore may be a new concept, or it may be a concept without a concept or a broad concept, without too clear an extension, and this kind of commentary may be more meaningful." Wang Wei, secretary of the party group of the Shanghai Writers Association, hopes that the competition will enable young students to fully explore the value of literary classics and make classics an important way for contemporary youth to enhance their cultural self-confidence.
"Making different voices and getting rid of the stereotypes interpreted by previous generations is the creative embodiment of young students." Literary creation and criticism require classic spiritual contemplation and the continuation of the context, and the enthusiastic response of previous editions has given us confidence. The first contestants have now become an important force on all fronts. If they continue to do literary criticism in the future, it will be of great significance to literature. "In the view of the writer Sun Yong, the selection of items that are changing every year is intended to excavate more excellent articles of modern literature, re-select and polish the literary classics that have been buried for various reasons in the past, let young students and more readers read and analyze, and take this opportunity to enhance young people's artistic feelings and appreciation, and once again explore and discover the charm of new literature." If the "Sprout" magazine new concept competition builds a platform for the echelon of creative talents, the young students' reading competition paves the platform for the growth of talents in literary theory and literary criticism. With such two platforms, the shanghai young literary talent queue is relatively neat. ”
"We encourage young students to be more exposed to the classic works produced in Shanghai and the different periods of Shanghai displayed in the classic works, so as to help the city of Shanghai with the context and strength of Shanghai literature itself, and determine their own cultural temperament and cultural character." Chen Danyan, chairman of the Shanghai Literature Development Foundation and a writer, is looking forward to it.
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Bibliography (in order of the year of birth of the writer)
1. Lu Xun: "Casting Swords"
2. Guo Moruo: "Qu Yuan"
3. Ye Shengtao: "In the City"
4. Mao Dun: "Lin Jia Puzi"
5. Yu Dafu: "Chi Guihua"
6. Xu Zhimo: "The Kangqiao I Know"
7. Feng Zikai: Essay on Yuanyuantang
8. Tian Han: "The Song of Rejuvenation"
9. Qu Qiubai: "Preface to the > Of < Lu Xun's Miscellaneous Feelings Anthology"
10. Xia Yan: "Under the Eaves of Shanghai"
11. Wang Renshu: "Friendship"
12. Shen Congwen: "Husband"
13. Yang Hansheng: "Ten Thousand Lights"
14. Feng Xuefeng: Memoirs of Lu Xun
15. Ding Ling: "Wei Hu"
16. Ba Jin: "Remembering Mr. Lu Xun"
17. Ai Wu: "Basho Valley"
18. Satin: "The Way of the Beast"
19. Shi Jingcun: "Shi Xiu"
20. Yu Ling: "Night in Shanghai"
21. Lu Li: "Prisoner of Green"
22. Yin Fu: "Baby Tower"
23. Duanmu Hongliang: "The Melancholy of The Heron Lake"
24. Mu Shiying: "Shanghai Foxtrot"
25. Pan Liudai: "Autobiography of the Retired Lady"
Bibliographic reading address https://www.myhuayu.com, Chinese Literature Network "Encounter with 25 Classics of Shanghai - 2021-2022 Young Students Reading Literary Classics Competition" 25 Bibliography Electronic Edition Reading Area.
Author: Xu Yang
Photo: Photo by the organizer, Xu Yang