A review of the modern literary studies in the 1980s from the perspective of the disciplinary history

Abstract

This article reviews and sorts out the major trends of the research on modern Chinese literature in the 1980s. The author deems that the research had come through the phases of reassessment  and the resuscitation of the discipline, the prevalence of the study on literary trends and schools, the theory and methodology craze, the suggestion of an integral view on literary history as well as the adjustment of the disciplinary structure. This article comments on the representative works of each phase with the attention to the relationships among all the sectors of the academic production  and changes as well as the spiritual and cultural causes that had brought about the transitions.