关键词: 《春蚕》, 农民形象, 差异, 嬗变, 茅盾, 鲁迅, 赵树理

Abstract:

Modern writers such as LU Xun, MAO Dun, and ZHAO Shuli have created different images of farmers. The projecting of classic farmers’ images, such as those of Ah Q’s, Lao Tongbao’s, and Xiao Erhei’s, clearly reflects the evolution in the images of farmers in modern novels. Among them, Mao Dun's short story The Spring Silkworms is a key and transitional text in terms of differences in the images of farmers in modern novels. The Spring Silkworms presents an amiable and respectable image of a farmer in modern China, which is different from the new literary modeling of the farmers in the rural literature of "May Fourth Movement" period. The depiction of MAO Dun's images of farmers focuses on exploring the combination of traditional and modern consciousness of farmers, which differs from the images of farmers in LU Xun's works. However, the images of farmers created by LU and MAO are still the farmers in the eyes of the scholar-style intellectuals, only from different angles. The farmers in ZHAO Shuli’s writings appear as true active participants and creators of history. Modern writers’ artistic exploration and experience of farmers’ images still have a certain enlightening significance for contemporary Chinese writers’ literary creations.

Key words: The Spring Silkworms, the image of farmer, difference, evolution, MAO Dun, LU Xun, ZHAO Shuli