ABSTRACT
The exploration of the value of Shen Congwen’s literature actually occurred overseas – and this exploration also catalyzed the reevaluation of Shen within domestic academic circles in China following the termination of the Cultural Revolution. The ideological transformations that accompanied the shift to a new era meant that after the 1949 founding of New China, left-wing literature came to occupy an absolutely commanding position on the literary scene. Through a rough calculation, one could probably divide research about Shen into three periods. During the first period of research, the years prior to 1949, it amounted largely to contemporaneous literary criticism of his imaginative writings, and was occasionally not lacking in penetrating insights. During the second period of research spanning the three decades after 1949, research on Shen came to a virtual standstill. During the third period of the 1980s up through the present day, research on Shen Congwen gradually sprang up and came to form an upsurge of scholarly activity.
