小说《飘》在中国的接受现状调查(4)
newspapers published comments that the novel was reactionary, so it should not be a
large print, and advised publishers not to “go with the wind” too far away. (Zhang
Lixia, 2009: 113)
Facing the huge public pressure, the power of the press seemed trivial. On the 13th of
June, 1980, the Vice-Chairman Deng Xiaoping met Philadelphia university delegation
in Philadelphia University. He mentioned the book. He said: “you have a book called
Gone with the Wind, it is about the civil war. The novel is well written, Chinese now
have debate on this book whether the Chinese version should be published or not,
because the book is supporting the southern plantation owners, we want to publish
Chinese version of this book. It is not a big deal, so that everyone has the chance to comment on it.” After this storm, critics changed the original extremely negative
attitude towards Gone with the Wind and began to evaluate concord of the novel.
Except a few articles stuck the original negative opinion in the 1950s, such as
Comment on Gone with the Wind, Uncover Gone with the Wind. Many critics began to
redefine the value of the novel. For example, Xiao Mu thought that Gone with the
Wind accorded with the history and it was a realistic work with artistic value (Xiao
Mu, 1980: 34). What’s more, comments on Scarlett went from the crazy revivalist to
the other side. Bai Ye hold the opinion that Scarlett’s spirit is the spirit of the new
world Americans and Mitchell showed true creativity about Scarlett (Bai Ye, 1980:
55). When it came to the artistic values of the novel, Lai Zhunfang said: “Gone with
the Wind is an imperishable realistic work and has eternal artistic value.” (Lai
Zhunfang, 1980: 57)
2.3 Establishment of the Position as a Classic (1990-now)
Gone with the Wind entered into a new era after 1990. Loose, enlightened social
environment, two-way communication culture provided good atmosphere to rewrite
Gone with the Wind. Because of the translators, critics and the public’s support, Gone
with the Wind’s position as a classic literary work has been established. In the 1990s,
there was a boom to translate classic literary works. Each press published different
translation version of Gone with the Wind and all entitled under the name of World
Literature Series or The world’s Ten Greatest Classics. The market also appeared a
wide variety of contrast English and Chinese classical articles, world literature classic
speed reading, youth reading library etc.
Gone with the Wind can be viewed as a classic, the mass’s extensive reading and
public opinion evaluation were undoubtedly crucial factors, especially the emergence
of reception aesthetics. The ordinary readers’ opinions about the text played more and
more important role. Reception aesthetics broke the minority authority’s monopoly