Abstract
The research on "the May Fourth Movement" represented by Lu Xun studies needs an urgent shift from current paradigms that have been used over the past three decades. An interpretive framework that organically combines humanity with literature needs to be constructed so as to enrich the understanding of history by focusing on literature, instead of making literature history's footnote. In 1908, Lu Xun published five articles in the classical Chinese language, in which he in fact provided an inner vision of an alternative experience of art and literature, which differed from existing discussions that were mainly from a "logocentric" perspective. By way of extensive discussion over various fields, such as history, science, poetry, culture and politics, Lu Xun accomplished his critique of existing chaos marked by superficially antithetical cultural and societal attitudes. In this regard, Lu Xun presented his idea "to transcend the decadent and to give rise to affection", using "affection" as his epistemological device to interpret his experience of literature and its inner construction. Rather than "language" or "evolution", "affection" was the core of Lu Xun's literature as well as his historical subjectivity. Lu Xun's "inner voice" can be traced back to two classical poetic theories, and his "new voice" was not from "the foreign", but "affected" "by the past". Lu Xun in his early stage was not simply a thinker of enlightenment confined by "the doctrine of evolution", but a devotee of life enlightenment with a belief in "the doctrine of affection".
First Page
64
Last Page
77
Recommended Citation
Luo, Cheng. 2019. "Enlightenment of "Affection": The Inner Construction and Historical Significance of the Origin of Lu Xun's Literary." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 39, (2): pp.64-77. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol39/iss2/6
