메이드 인 ‘바링허우’ ― 이천년대 중국 문학의 어떤 경로

Abstract

Post-80s literature appeared for the first time as an established literature institution in the 2000s within China couldn't capture the youth/adolescent reader's desire and need. The youth/adolescent reader expressed their cultural need through reading this kind of literature. In addition, it reconceptualized literature and its institution. It occurred as the mechanism of production regarding literature shifted. This research investigated the process and significance that this kind of literature shifts, by periodizing it as three stage specifically. In the first stage, 1998 to 2002, the post-80s literature was just called “Boy Literature(Shaonian wenxue)” and approached with an educational and enlightenment perspective. The “new Concept Writing Contest”, which the magazine of “Bud(Mengya)” and a few famous university organized at first, gave birth to latter a part of post-80s literature. This encouraged youth writer to create a new conceptual writing and express freely their real experiences, juxtaposed with the suppressed atmosphere of national language education at regular schools, As a result, it was ultimately reviewed from pedagogical and enlightenment perspective. Therefore, it couldn't provoke a discussion on the generation at early period. The dispute on post-80s literature which is conceptualized as “Boy Literature” focused on how we look at this new enfant terrible. The post-80s writer was discussed in the framework of exceptional instance or special (‘genius’) child. Therefore, it was recognized that it was distant from the literature which contained some kinds of universalism regarding a generation. However, at the second stage (2003 to 2005), it confronted a new aspect when post-80s literature became extremely popular and constituted major commercial group. At this moment, this kind of literature obtained the concept of generation literature named “post-80s literature”. Specifically, post-80s literature involved the publishing industry specializing in the sub-genre of “youth literature” that satisfied with some youth generation's tastes. It is new type of production or invention of “youth literature”, being accomplished by incorporating it into publisher industry. It is noticeable that the concept of post-80s literature was emerged among criticism of its literary value. In general, this kind of literature was criticized as pop literature because of its commercial success. It was considered as the ‘problematic’ literature that worth taking note was affiliated to market rather than the literary circle as that high culture. Ironically the older generation’ judgment it as a negative value, however, results in the generation of consciousness of the post-80s, as shown in the process of the Hanhan-Baiye dispute(HanBaizhizheng). In the third stage, post-80s literature stepped up to reach the situation in that it became the cultural industry itself as much as the youth literature. While this cultural industry as youth literature connected and compatible with other media, it constituted a new cultural trend and continued its cultural significance for that generation. And in terms it constructed a new tendency that was based on literature as old media, it was deployed in the convergence paradigm that enlarged its market confronting old media with new media. At this time, the established literary circle accepted it but couldn't encompass a shift in the concept of literature. Post-80s literature within China in the 2000s dismantled the old dichotomy of thinking concerning literary/commercial value, constituting a new concept in literature. In post 80s literature, this dichotomy wasn't an opposite relationship any more. Rather, it was reconstituted into a concept that operated interactively within the system containing culture and industry. The key to how we consider this kind of literature lies not in the paradigm of literary/commercial value but in the new literature production mechanism in relation to the intervention between cultural industry and convergence culture paradigm. And it asks us to rethink the concept of new literature on which invades the territory of literature. Post-80s literature challenges the location and concept of literature and forces us to fundamentally reconsider the problematic of literature.