Calls for universities to establish a "network literature" discipline

Since the beginning of the new century, China's online literature has flourished, with a large contingent of authors, a rich collection of fine works, a large number of readers, a high rate of industrial transformation, and its overseas dissemination has also had a great impact. Chinese online literature is even known as a "national cultural industry" comparable to Hollywood, Japanese animation, and Korean TV dramas in the United States. Along with this trend, with the support of the party and the state, the study of online literature has also become increasingly prosperous. At present, the research of online literature mainly has three parts: university research institutions, the system of the Writers Association and the Literary Association, and the civil system. As far as universities are concerned, in recent years, the national social science projects and the Ministry of Education projects have a certain embodiment of network literature research, and several generations of scholars, old, middle-aged and young generations, have experts and scholars working in this field, and there have also been many research masterpieces. At the same time, it is undeniable that there are many problems in the study of online literature within the university system.

Specifically, each discipline fights its own battles and expands its field, which inevitably produces discord and contradictions in research methods, concerns, research attitudes and value orientations, and even forms "research barriers", so that academic research "talks to itself" and lacks communication and integration. The discipline of modern and contemporary Chinese literature pays attention to the careful reading and analysis of texts, and lacks the interpretation of deep-seated cultural phenomena; literature and art studies pay attention to interpretation from the perspective of postmodernity, science and technology culture, but lack of persuasion in the study of specific texts; communication studies pay more attention to the effect and characteristics of network literature dissemination, and industrial capital researchers pay more attention to the construction of big data, relying on charts and models, which are scientific, but often lack humanistic care and literary observation; researchers at the national policy level pay more attention to ideological construction and grand discourse analysis. However, there are shortcomings in micro research. In terms of further subdivision, the discipline of popular literature attaches importance to the traceability of online literature, explores the bloodline inheritance and genre development of online literature from the perspective of typology, and pays more attention to the practice of network model creation, but lacks theoretical improvement.

The research of these disciplines has enriched the research dimension of online literature from their respective perspectives and constructed the research space of online literature, and its embarrassment lies in the fact that online literature has the characteristics of multi-dimensional "disciplinary integration", which also leads to the ambiguity of discipline attribution and the complexity of research paradigms. Critic Xia Lie believes that the development of online literature is a unique "cultural field" formed by the four-dimensional interaction of reader audiences, industries and capital, national policies and intellectual elites. Even within the same discipline, different perceptions of the value and artistic attributes of online literature can lead to cognitive conflicts. For example, many researchers of traditional modern and contemporary literature will be dismissive of online literature research from the perspective of data construction and literary history combing, believing that online literature research is equivalent to "on-site criticism" and does not have the possibility of classicization. Many teachers of literature and art believe that online literature belongs to the category of symbolic science and technology culture and does not have literary significance. In the view of many scholars of communication and industry, online literature is a "cultural product" and does not have independent literary value.

Because of this, the author strongly calls on the university education authorities to establish a separate second-level discipline of "online literature" as soon as possible, which is subordinate to the first-level discipline of "Chinese literature". The reason why it should be placed under the first-level discipline of "Chinese literature" is to make it clear that online literature has become a discipline system and a phenomenon-level cultural research point, and it has a profound "Chineseness". Only in the development of socialist cultural undertakings with Chinese characteristics can new literary innovations that integrate science and technology and literature appear. At the same time, "literary" is also the first element of online literature. Scientific and technological, disseminative, and ideological research must also be combined with "literary" research, each with its own strengths, in order to form a "joint force", otherwise online literature research may enter the strange circle of "online literature research without literature", which is not conducive to the subsequent development of online literature. The reason why it is set as a second-level discipline is to distinguish it from modern and contemporary literature, literary aesthetics, creative studies, communication studies, industry and other disciplines, and to obtain a more detached and independent status, so as to form an "equal disciplinary integration and exchange". The discipline setting of the university reflects the professionalism and authority, and also provides effective guidance for the construction of the teaching staff, talent training and graduate employment. A research field, from pure academic research to a more advanced and broad university discipline system, not only means that the status of the research field has been improved, but also means that it has further entered the field of vision of national talent quality training.

As far as its reasons are concerned, the first is the rich creative achievements of online literature and the reality of prosperous development, and it is urgent to make corresponding adjustments to the construction of university literary disciplines to adapt to this nascent "phenomenon-level" literary landscape. According to the "2020 Blue Book of Chinese Online Literature", the scale of China's online literature users in 2020 will reach 467 million, the cumulative number of new words in the whole year will exceed 50 billion, and the online literature industry will drive the total output value of the downstream cultural industry by more than 1 trillion yuan. Second, the university has accumulated a relatively mature network literature research team, such as the Ouyang Youquan team of Central South University, the Shao Yanjun team of Peking University, the Zhou Zhixiong team of Anhui University, the Xia Lie team of Hangzhou Normal University, and the Tang Zhesheng team of Soochow University. These research teams, belonging to different disciplines, have achieved remarkable results and laid the foundation for the creation of disciplines in online literature research. It is precisely because online literature research has the disciplinary characteristics of cross-border integration and interdisciplinarity, online literature research needs to go beyond the "independent completion" model of scholars in traditional literary disciplines. The exchange and cooperation of various teams, especially the combination and reengineering of different disciplines, is even more urgent. Third, in the construction of materials, database construction and literary history construction, textbook setting, etc., the conditions for the creation of disciplines are also becoming more and more mature. In recent years, in terms of the establishment of projects by the National Social Science Fund and the Ministry of Education, there have been many topics related to the construction of online text databases, data research and the transformation of critical discourse. Excellent teaching materials such as Ouyang Youquan's "History of the Development of Online Literature" and Zhou Zhixiong's "Online Literature Tutorial" have also provided positive preparations for the creation of disciplines, and Shao Yanjun's team has also achieved considerable results in sorting out the data on the development of online literature. Fourth, in theoretical research and exploration, many researchers have also accumulated richly, such as Xu Miaomiao's research on network literature from the perspective of gender, Huang Mingfen's research on the hypertext characteristics of online literature, and Chen Dingjia and Shan Xiaoxi's research on the characteristics of online literary media, all of which have had a wide impact. In addition, there are many research results involved in ethnic minority culture and industrial policy. Fifth, in the field of online literary criticism, there are also many scholars who have done a lot of work. Bai Ye's research on the development trend of online literature, Shao Yanjun's "Broken Wall Book" and Xia Lie's "Great Gods" and other works have provided us with a good opportunity to understand the writers of online literature, refine the classics of online literature, understand the production process and internal development history of online literature, and also lay a solid foundation for the creation of the discipline of online literature. Sixth, support and attention at the national policy level. Whether it is the national cultural development strategy, cultural institutions such as the Writers Association and Literature Association, or university research institutions, in recent years, they have shown their attention to the development of online literature. General Secretary Xi Jinping's "Speech at the Forum on Literary and Art Work" stressed that "it is necessary to adapt to the development of the situation, do a good job in the creation and production of online literature and art, and strengthen positive guidance." Local literary associations and writers associations have set up network writers' associations, and their activities are very active. Peking University, Central South University, Soochow University, Anhui University, Shandong Normal University and other universities also pay a lot of attention to online literature.

It can be seen that the preparation for the establishment of a "network literature discipline" has become increasingly mature, whether from the aspects of creative influence and achievements, the attention and attention of government agencies, or from the aspects of literary criticism, literary history construction, literary theory exploration, and data accumulation. Within the discipline of Chinese literature, the establishment of a new second-level discipline of "network literature" is conducive to establishing the classic consciousness of network literature. Calling for the best works of online literature and realizing the sustainable development of online literature has become a hot topic. In addition to factors such as official support and recognition, the strengthening of the author's sense of classics, and the self-shaping of industrial capital, it is also necessary for the university system to actively intervene. At present, some schools have online literature majors, but most of them belong to creative writing and are more practical. The establishment of independent second-level disciplines can form a trend of classic research on online literature at the level of authoritative discourse in universities. Secondly, the formation of independent disciplinary attribution is conducive to the integration of various forces in online literature research, the formation of a more efficient and scientific research team, and the truly realization of "convergence and integration" between disciplines. This is not only in line with the dual attributes of science and technology and literature of network literature, in line with the interprofessional characteristics of network literature research, but also in line with the "integration" concept of university discipline education. Third, the establishment of a new network literature discipline is conducive to providing new academic growth points and promoting the employment of students. In particular, the cultivation of talents with a master's degree or above will have a stronger advantage than students in traditional literature and art, modern and contemporary literature, popular literature and communication, creative writing and other majors in the integration of disciplines, so as to better meet the needs of current academic production and the needs of cultivating online literary creation talents.

As many scholars who study online literature agree, online literature uses media transformation to achieve "paradigm transformation", not only to have rich creative performance to confirm its own status, but also to have a disciplinary form to characterize its theoretical logic. With the prosperity and development of mainland network literature, it is urgent for researchers to effectively interpret it, and it is even more urgent for universities to make a strong response to the construction of disciplines. We should not only be able to interpret the phenomenon of online literature and specific online literature texts, but also be able to go deep into the texture of online literature, study its internal laws, improve its classic level, enhance its industrial development stamina, discover its "Chinese story" characteristics, and provide strong cultural support for the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics.

(The author is a professor at Soochow University)