Case Study of the "Narrative of the Cultural Revolution" in the Literary Works of Feng Jicai, Lu Xinhua, Liu Xinwu, etc.

In 1966 Mao Zedong, the chairman of the Communist Party of China, launched the ideological campaign known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The goal of this movement was to get rid of capitalist elements in Chinese society in order to preserve communism. It had a huge impact on different parts of society, especially on artists, teachers, writers and other intellectuals. The literature of 1970s, which describes the events of the Cultural Revolution, is referred to as «scar literature». Although there has been considerable research on Chinese contemporary literature, the main distinguishing features of such a literary movement as «scar literature» have not been described. Generally stated, the purpose of the diploma thesis is to reveal how the events of the Cultural Revolution were covered in the literary works of such modern Chinese writers as Feng Jicai, Lu Xinhua, Liu Xinwu and to describe the main features of such literary movement as «scar literature». To achieve this goal, the following objectives were set: - to identify the main features of the historical period that was reflected in the «scar literature». - to determine the reasons for the appearance of the «scar literature». - to reveal the circumstances of the life paths of such prominent representatives of the «scar literature» as Lu Xinhua, Liu Xinwu, Feng Jicai and others. - to identify the literary works of Lu Xinhua, Liu Xinwu, Feng Jicai and others that are related to the «scar literature». - to determine the main features of the «scar literature». The results of this work showed that the «scar literature» was the dominant trend in modern Chinese literature in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This literary movement exposed the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution and condemned its negative impact on Chinese society. The distinctive features of the «scar literature» include artistic immaturity, journalistic pathos, and simplicity of the plot. The uniqueness of this literary trend lies in the fact that it existed only in a specific historical period and subsequently did not develop anymore.