Follow the path of the Russians?: socialist realism in the Soviet Union and China
Date
2009-11-24T23:44:46Z
Authors
Zhang, Hu
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Abstract
Socialist realist fiction is a form that combines images and ideas based on realism and incorporates certain features of romanticism. The concept that human society develops from darkness to light, a key element in historical materialism, forms the foundation of socialist realism. It is a genre whose characters belong to a "great family" of socialist revolutionaries rather than to the traditional biological family of other literary forms. By depersonalizing and objectifying characters, socialist realist fiction highlights the maturation of the hero from spontaneity to consciousness. Socialist realist fiction is akin to Scripture because in its use as a parable to promote the "sacred spirit," an ideology that incorporates both Marxism and Leninism. It condenses an author's view on historical development into the behaviors and ideas of a single hero.
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Keywords
socialist realism, literature, Chinese literature, 20th century