Revisiting 'Seventeen–Year Literature' (1949-1966) in China from a Neocolonial Perspective

Abstract

In her article "Revisiting Seventeen–Year Literature' (1949-1966) in China from a Neo­colonial Perspective" Tian Zhang surveys the "Seventeen-Year Literature" (1949-1966) from a neocolo­nial perspective. It reviews the internal and external factors of anxiety faced by Chinese during the period of seventeen years since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The sev­enteen years witnessed a stress on and flourishing of the proletarian socialist literature of the people, by the people and for the people. The seventeen-year literature, on its way to smashing the old system, represents the trend of Chinese literature of the time and the extension of the May Fourth Movement in 1919 and the left-wing literature of the 1930s. It made a significant contribution to claiming Chinese­ness, heightening the salience of national identity, consolidating government centrality, and enhancing cultural tradition through its narrative patterns of history, ideology and everyday life.