Reasons for the emergence of scar novels

In the history of contemporary literature, "scar novels" mainly refer to novels that expose the ten-year catastrophe of the Cultural Revolution and the dark reality that harms the party and the country and hurts people's hearts. Their theme is to deny the "Cultural Revolution" in an all-round way, expose Lin Biao and the Gang of Four, lash the ugly soul, sympathize with people's sufferings, and sing praises to beautiful sentiments. The pioneering work is Liu's short story "The Head Teacher", named after his short story "Scar", including: "The Road of Life by the Bamboo Forest", the autobiographical novel "Bloody Dusk" by the old ghost and other "Scar Novels" with the theme of educated youth; Zhou Keqin's "scar novels" with rural themes such as Xu Mao and his daughters; From the Great Wall literature, to Mo Yingfeng's Song of the General and other "scar novels" that expose the autocracy of the Cultural Revolution, there are also love novels, Zhang Xianliang's "Zhang Yongyu" series, and even Su Tong's works Tattoo Times and Tattoo Times written for teenagers with the background of "Toona Tree Street" in the Cultural Revolution.

The above works are only from the perspective of political themes. Nowadays, things are different, leaving aside the factors of the times, when we reread these "scar novels", we find that they are also examining the humanity, family and morality hidden in the "Cultural Revolution". For a long time, what we have seen is only the dominant single theme of accusing and exposing the Cultural Revolution and the Gang of Four, while ignoring another hidden theme, that is, lashing the ugly human nature in individual life, praising the beautiful human nature, calling for and promoting socialist human nature and humanitarianism. Through "scar novels" such as Scar, we can see through several kinds of human nature in the Cultural Revolution.

two

(A) the lack of humanity

Human nature is human emotions such as emotions, such as affection, affection, love and evil desires, and spiritual orientation such as the pursuit of ideals, moral measurement and value judgment. Describe human nature positively, reflect human nature, praise beautiful and healthy human nature, criticize ugly human nature, and call for beautiful family and love. It is the embodiment of caring for people in literature, the essential content of literature, an important issue in realistic creation, an indispensable aspect of democratic system and an eternal theme in literary works.

Under the special historical background of the Cultural Revolution, the distorted understanding of human nature has intensified. In the ideology of the class struggle program, in the open discourse environment, human nature has become the most taboo topic for writers and lost in a beautiful literary home. Human nature faded out of the political discourse environment and became a "minefield" in literary creation, which was treated by dogmatism. At that time, almost all the works of "Cultural Revolution Literature" no longer described human nature positively. There was a serious "absence" in the works that directly expressed human nature during the Cultural Revolution. For example, the revolutionary model operas, which once swept the country and dominated the trend for nearly ten years, hardly involved real human nature. People talk about the color change of "humanity" and regard humanity as a scourge, for fear of avoiding it and getting burned, but they don't realize that humanity is also the proper meaning of Marxists. Human nature is completely trampled and destroyed, becoming a taboo language and falling into an unprecedented cultural revolution disaster.

Since human nature has been twisted into a terrible monster and cannot develop healthily, there is only room for the survival and development of class nature. It is reasonable to ignore and suppress human nature and only obey politics. Especially after the "Three Highlights" creative mode formulated by the Gang of Four became an important principle of socialist realism at that time, human nature was completely excluded from the literary theme, lost in the class discourse situation, and fluctuated. All taboos seem to turn everyone into an out-of-touch, out-of-touch, out-of-touch saint, or at the same time, with monkey king's eyes open, find out all the hidden human nature and criticize it, which is the same as heinous spies and class enemies such as "funding". Even biological parents should be loyal to their parents and obey "class parents". From this perspective, Wang Xiaohua, the hero of Scar, seems to have a reasonable emotional orientation and value judgment standard. Although Wang Xiaohua and her mother used to have a good relationship, they loved each other deeply. But when her mother became a "traitor" and a "spy" at the most difficult moment, she broke off the relationship with her mother and lost her humanity.

(2) Ignorance, willfulness, selfishness, ruthlessness, snobbery, blind obedience, loss, lack of self-knowledge and judgment.

The "Cultural Revolution" was evil, which brought incalculable losses to the party and the country, to people's political, economic, cultural and personal lives, and to social development. However, it is not comprehensive to blame all the problems and sufferings on the "Cultural Revolution". It is to shirk responsibility and cover up the self-humanity defects of individual life. It is suspected of being across the board and should be treated objectively and historically. If people had their own independent ideological understanding, realized human dignity and had a beautiful, healthy and independent humanity, perhaps the "Cultural Revolution" would not last so long and the disaster would not be so serious.

After the mother of Wang Xiaohua, the protagonist of Scar, was classified as a traitor, she abandoned her reverence for her mother and her deep affection for her mother and daughter, "signed up for the countryside without graduation" and refused anything sent by her mother, including letters, hoping to break with her mother completely; However, 1978, her mother regained her reputation and work, but she was eager to reunite with her mother. When she finally found her mother, she had already died in the hospital bed ... thus, she was left with an indelible psychological trauma. In fact, it is this "mother who has been revolutionary for many years" who is really hurt emotionally: not only has she been greatly wronged, but even her own daughter has turned her back on others, not giving her comfort, but also sprinkling salt on her mental wounds. And Wang Xiaohua, if she is also a victim, then she is only a victim of her own ignorance, and not everyone suffered from the "Cultural Revolution".

As a weak individual under the background of "Cultural Revolution", ordinary individuals can't reverse and decide the development direction of the times. But after all, people have subjective initiative and can make their own choices in it. They shouldn't go with the flow like duckweed. Although Wang Xiaohua could not change her mother's mistake of being judged as a "traitor" or reverse her fate, she could choose to trust her mother, support her and share the difficulties with her mother, but she chose the opposite, which made her fate worse and left her a lifelong secret pain. -The Cultural Revolution was a political disaster. However, the incompleteness of human nature makes people participate in this political disaster intentionally or unintentionally, adding fuel to the fire. It was not so much the "Cultural Revolution" that left her with "spiritual scars" as the condemnation of conscience that tortured her. Therefore, Scar actually exposed the selfish, snobbish, ugly, narrow and incomplete side of individual human nature in the Cultural Revolution: because Wang Xiaohua was the daughter of a traitor, no matter how hard she tried, she could not get people's sympathy and understanding, could not join the league, and became a victim of the ugliness of human nature in the snobbish and indifferent era; Wang Xiaohua himself lost the ability to judge right and wrong because of the lack of human consciousness and the strangulation of "class nature", and became a snob of human nature, which further hurt others and became the strangler of others: for the so-called future, her mother was labeled as a "traitor", so she naturally broke with her mother coldly, leaving the minimum affection, which was a fatal blow to her spirit; And once her mother regained her reputation and job, she longed to be reunited with her mother-if I had known this, why should I have! But this reflects the true side of human nature in the Cultural Revolution: ignorance, willfulness, selfishness, ruthlessness, badness, snobbery, blind obedience, lack of self-knowledge and judgment.

Taking Scar as an example, this paper analyzes Wang Xiaohua's ruthlessness to his mother. Although it is embodied by dreams, dreams are the shadow of reality. When I dreamed of going home, I saw my mother "writing in big letters:' supplementary explanation about my traitor'." She stared at her and scolded angrily, "Shame on you!" Turn around and walk out. "When her mother tried to stop her, her words were harsh and cold:" It's none of your business! "Moreover, even when she received a letter from her mother to rehabilitate her, she was" somewhat hesitant ",worried that Zhao Xue was not real and could not bring her good luck and trouble, and did not know whether to go back to see her mother. For the sake of the so-called political and personal development prospects, even the mother-daughter affection thicker than water has retreated to one side, which shows how selfish, cold, bad and snobbish human nature was during the Cultural Revolution, and how insignificant the weight of affection was!

A considerable number of "scar novels", especially those with the theme of educated youth, reflect this humanity in the Cultural Revolution. They either blame themselves or reflect on themselves. Inspired by fanaticism, we can't see the value of others' lives and trample on others' lives and dignity. Life in Bamboo Forest pays more attention to the human factors in the delicate character of the heroine Tan, and profoundly reveals the whole evolution process of Tan from simple to complex.

In addition, the old ghost's "Bloody Dusk" also goes deep into human nature. As for the series of "Toona Tree Street Boys" created by Su Tong in his novels, it is even more an exhibition of evil human nature, and almost no bright color of human nature can be seen.

(C) the confusion and gloom of human nature

The performance of this humanity in the Cultural Revolution is mainly reflected in Wang Xiaohua's Mother. This is the most typical example of the Cultural Revolution. Due to the limitations of the times and their incomprehension of the value of individual life, despite the "revolution for many years", when grievances come, they dare not defend their rights as human beings and dare not communicate with others, so their grievances have nowhere to stretch and they dare not stretch, so they have to be cautious. Even in front of his hard-working daughter, he looks like a wrong pupil. Just because her daughter found her own problem, she "suddenly panicked and went to cover the paper on the table" and said implicitly, "No, I didn't write anything." This is a sad human tragedy. The chief culprit of this tragedy is the out-and-out "Cultural Revolution". Due to the high-pressure political environment during the "Cultural Revolution", the bleak human nature existing in individuals could not shine the light of democracy and independence, and trembled and lost the vigorous and independent human consciousness, which was a common state at that time, such as Feng Jicai's "Ah! Cautious researchers such as Chung-I Wu.

(D) Beautiful and warm humanity

The "Cultural Revolution" is only an era background, an external cause, and an era melting pot for smelting human nature. Due to the lack of self-judgment on value, independent thinking and understanding, ignoring the value of individual life and other human defects, it intensified through the "Cultural Revolution". The defects and ugliness of human nature lacking the spirit of repentance, because the "Cultural Revolution" found an opportunity. Even though there has never been a "Cultural Revolution" in history, as long as there are defects in human nature, it will be manifested in other forms, but it will be different in different times. Even in the harsh political climate of the Cultural Revolution, there is still a beautiful, healthy and touching humanity. As the saying goes, "poor people see heroes." There are countless examples of this. For example, from Sweet Strawberry by Sun Jianzhong, a Tujia writer in Hunan, we can see the unity of strong party spirit and beautiful humanity: Aunt Bilan. She not only appeared as the party branch secretary, but also was a charitable mother. Her maternal love not only gave her daughter, but also warmed the hearts of the whole village.

Xu Yunxiao, the four girls in Zhou Keqin's Xu Mao and His Daughters, has always maintained a beautiful human nature, simple and kind, tenacious, and deeply loves her brother-in-law (sister is dead) Jin Dongshui and her two children; Although forced to marry the rogue villain Zheng, she never gave in from the bottom of her heart, but resisted. "

Therefore, when people calm down, they should not only reflect on the destruction of human nature by cultural autocracy from the political and social perspectives, but also accuse the inhuman extinction of human nature; We should also look for human factors from "scar novels", reflect on the imperfection of human nature and block the "black hole" of human nature. Only in this way can we build a beautiful human nature, recover human dignity and realize human value in criticism and accusation.