Abstract:
In literary study, time is absolutely not a mere natural concept, but contains rich and original contents. The development of literary history is now connected and now unconnected with society in the time. Therefore, the temporal division of literary history doesn’t mainly agree with development of society in the time but with its own characteristics in development.“The literary history of the Republic of China” adopts natural time as defining means, solving the problems of multielement and intergrowth in the meaning of literature itself. This practice breaks the existing situation in which political discourse and western theory dominate and determine everything in the construct of literary history, paving the way for surveying the general framework of the literary history in the period from a totally fresh perspective. The adoption of this concept, however, will fall into contradiction and anxiety when it attempts to rid itself of the ideology and values attached to the period of literary history.
