Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.3, 2019

Hu Feng’s Revolutionary Realism Theory and the Sinicization of Marxist Literary Theories

(Abstract)

Huang Nianran and Wang Ziming

Hu Feng was one of the important explorers of the sinicization of Marxist literary theories. He kept pushing the theoretical barriers in the discipline of literary theories and expanded the depth and range of Marxist literary theories. It constitutes a theoretical system of revolutionary realism with rigorous logic structure and theoretical self-consistence on several pivotal questions. His idea of “unifying subjective and objective” achieved the dialectical interpretation of the inner mechanism of literary creation; his argument of “spiritual slavery trauma” extended Marxist thoughts on alienation in milieu of literary theories. Hu laid particular emphasis on dynamic reflection theories through the proposal of “subjective fighting spirit”. And the wording of “life is everywhere” enlarged the theoretical domain of revolutionary realism. The question of “national form” is thoroughly investigated in the framework of “May Fourth Tradition—Realism”. Hu Feng’s theoretical system is an accomplishment of the sincization of Marxist literary theories with historical status and academic value in the 20th century.