China and the West

[Elistratova, A.A.]. Bailun. Li Xiangchong yi. [ID D26434].
Elistratova schreibt : "It is the workers who are most familiar with the poetry of Shelley and Byron. Shelley's prophetic genius has caught their imagination, while Byron attracts their sympathy by his sensuous fire and by the virulence of his satire against the existing social order. The middle classes, on the other hand, have on their shelves only ruthlessly expurgated 'family' editions of these writers."
Chu Chih-yu : Elistratova criticized the English critics' hostility towards Byron and their distortion of his work. She emphasized the ideological connection between Byron's political stand and the aspiration of the popular masses to seek emancipation. She pointed out : “Byron's political comments and his poetry embodied the democratic cultural elements conceived under the living condition of the explited labouring class of England”. Byron was 'an exited witness, protector, and singer of the English labouring class' early spontaneous and immature activities'. She thus raise Byron's political comment to the same level as his poetry. The so-called political stand was, as far as Elistratova was concerned, the writer's attitude towards the labouring poeople. This happened to coincide with the criterion proposed by Mao that literature and art should serve the broad labouring masses.
Byron's scepticism, malancholy and gloom were construed by Elistratova as the result of the temporary failure of the progressive trends in their struggle against the reactionary forces. To Byron's melancholy she took a critical attitude. But her criticism was not pointed at Byron himself. From the perspective of historical materialism, she regarded this drawback of Byron's character as a limitation of his times. Byron's contradictions reflect the historical contradictions of the English democratic movement itself. About Byron's social life, she dwelt upon his two parliamentary speeches, which Chinese scholars had seldom mentioned before ; and later this subject was to become imperative in all Chinese biographies of Byron.
One of the most important arguments which run through Elistratova's article : 'The people versus the individual'. She regarded Manfred as the summit of Byron's individual rebellion and, at the same time, paradoxically, as marking the failure of his individualism. She observed that Manfred's rebellion against society is presented as an issue of philosophical ethics, which is not too far away from Western interpretations. Elistratova commended Prisoner of Chillon, Prometheus and the last two cantos of Childe Harold in which, the revolutionary poet asserted that the meaning of life and art lies in the fighting for freedom. Like most modern critics, Elistratova regarded Don Juan as the summit of all Byronic creation, calling it 'an excellent combination of revolutionary romantic enthusiasm with cool-headed realism and understanding of material relations which constitute the base of social development'. Her interest in Don Juan was focussed on its progressive political significance, its satire on the Holy Alliance, and its scoffing at the Lakers.
Firstly, starting from a Marxist point of view, Elistratova underlined the realistic significance of Byron's work. Secondly, as a socialist critic, she showed a particular interest in the relationship between the individual and society. She put a high value upon Byron's affinity with the people but held a critical view of his individualistic tendency.
Elistratova had a profound influence on Chinese academic circles. The Chinese translation immediately became an authority in the field, a blueprint for the Byron section of Chinese versions of English literary history. Its political viewpoint and research methodology were followed faithfully and mechanically. This article put an end to what we call the 'European period' of Byron studies in China, and marked the beginning of the 'Soviet socialist period'.