ACADEMIC JOURNAL
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ISSN 2542-1077 (Print) ISSN 1994-5973 (Online) |
Literary studies |
Sidorenko A. Yu. | Saint Petersburg University |
Keywords: Chinese literature red classics socialist realism bildungsroman literary policy in PRC Liang Bin value directions personosphere chronotope |
Summary: As a prime example of the 1950-s novels about the Chinese countryside, Liang Bin’s “Keep the Red Flag Flying” (1957) is frequently
positioned as a bildungsroman with the Chinese peasants of the 1920–30s as a collective protagonist. As our analysis shows, Chu
Laochung, the novel’s protagonist, may be viewed as a bildungsroman hero in a conventional sense, however, his bildung per se
could not be narrated with any degree of plausibility due to ideological constraints. On the other hand, Yan Jiangtao, an adolescent,
whose growing up and communist schooling are presented as communist bildung, his character and attitude being static and ‘correct’
the whole time, cannot be described as a bildungsroman character. Jiangtao’s upbringing, as we see it, is more of a process of education
than a personal evolution. The main objective of the novel, in accordance with the political agenda of its times, is to educate the reader, to direct his value conceptions. The novel adheres to idyllic chronotope, making it fit to be called an idyll of struggle. |
Displays: 403; |