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This article aims to examine how contemporary intellectuals from different cultural and political lingual backgrounds reveal their own personal ideal identifications and psychological developmental paths via the literary creations of An-Yi Wang. Wang experienced the rapid changes started from the Culture Revolution (1966-76) to the Reform and Opening (1978-) herself. With her works, especially those autobiographical novels, one can easily observe the progressions about how an intellectual coordinate herself and ponder about her time. From the Culture Revolution, to her new era extended well into the 80s; from Tian-an-men Square Protest in the end of the 80s, to her another new era appeared by the end of the 90s. Following the path of the thoughts of Wang, the tracks of “the history of the psychological worlds” of contemporary intellectuals could be connected. While sorting the psychological images presented in Wang’s works, this article also expects to investigate the psychological paths of a unique group of intellectuals.
This article is divided to three parts, discussing the spiritual images and thinking paths revealed in Wang’s works from the 70s to the present day. The first part, Buds of Ideals, mainly involves Wang’s experiences in Tian-an-men Square Protest (in the beginning of the 80s). The second, To Build a Tower of Spirits, talks about Wang’s belief crisis and self salvation (in the beginning of the 90s). And the third, Backward the Future, discuss Wang’s pursuits and inquiries written in her work, “Age of Enlightment,” in the beginning of the current century. The three parts stand for the three periods of Wang’s spiritual progressions. Via detailed readings of her texts, how Wang’s ideas about various historical events and periods could be shown and examined, and how a contemporary intellectual could search for his/her own belief in the historical currents can be demonstrated. The conclusion part is an overview of all the topics discussed in this article, stringing up all the different aspects of Wang’s spiritual world, showing how she overcame her belief crisis throughout her career, and trying to infer Wang’s possible development and new directions in her unfinished journey of looking for her belief.
Wang’s spiritual demands, pursuits and yearnings toward idealizations didn’t appear suddenly in the beginning of the 90s. They have own origins and developments. Wang has never been able to find a “belief;” however, she has never stopped looking for it. What prevents her from finding what she wants, and what makes her go on her pursuits? There is a unique psychological world lurking beneath, and that’s exactly where the twists of Wang’s works lay, also what provides her novels their charms and values.
This article has two main purposes. The first is using Wang as a model to show and examine how contemporary intellectuals respond the political atmospheres and the situations they are stuck in, and to search for their new beliefs. The second is to offer a careful reading of some parts of Wang’s texts, hoping to deepen and broaden the visions and fields of the studies of Wang.
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