The position of traditional literature in the present

As an academic term, it only appeared and became popular after the May 4th New Culture Movement. It refers to the language art of the working people-the oral creation of the people. This kind of literature includes prose myths, folklore, folk stories, rhyming songs, long narrative poems and folk opera works, rap literature, proverbs and riddles.

In the past, countless oral literature works created by working people played a social role in assisting people's real life and cultivating people's spiritual activities. In modern times, they have created new folk songs, new legends and jokes under the requirements of society and their own lives. They are more widely and directly in line with people's lives, reflect people's public opinion, echo and cooperate with the works of progressive writers of the times, and play a role in helping to transform society and promote life, although there are various differences in tradition and style between the two literatures. At present, those traditional folk literature works are still circulated orally among the people and continue to play various roles. On the other hand, due to the attention of academic circles, they are widely collected (including those new works), selected and sorted out, and returned to the people, so that they can play a new role under the current social conditions. This role is often irreplaceable by ordinary textbooks, at least in letting working people know the history of their ancestors and encouraging their sense of social justice. As for those new folk literature works, it goes without saying that they can have an educational effect on the broad masses of the people at present.

The practical function of folk literature has another aspect, that is, the theoretical knowledge function after research. Take folk literature as the object, study it from the viewpoint of historical materialism, and educate the broad masses of the people with the scientific principles obtained. First of all, this makes people rationally understand all aspects of language art created by producers of material wealth at all times and in all countries-what is its essence and characteristics? How did it come into being and develop? What does it have to do with other arts and society? What kind of social role does it play? ..... People can not only correctly understand folk literature as one of the precious spiritual wealth of working people, but also deeply understand the important principles of Marxism such as "People make history". It will further stimulate people's creative enthusiasm in the solemn March of the current "four modernizations".

In a word, folk literature works and their research results are an indispensable part of the socialist education of the broad masses of the people today.

The relationship between the collection and research of folk literature and literature and art, cultural history, etc. Folk literature is a special kind of literature-some scholars say it is a comprehensive art and an important cultural phenomenon. This kind of literature or culture is the spiritual wealth created and owned by the vast number of material wealth producers of the country and the nation. It not only has its own ideological content and artistic form, but also has its own unique performance process and communication mode. It is undoubtedly an important part of national literature or culture, and will naturally become the object of discussion and narration in the history of national literature and art, especially in socialist countries with working people as the main body. However, in the past, this special literature was discriminated against for various reasons. Not only is there a lack of scientific research on it, but not many people have begun to collect and preserve it. After the May 4th New Culture Movement, especially after the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the situation has changed a lot. But traditional or some new prejudices still exist. Therefore, modern literature and art or the history of literature and art can not be given its due full position in theoretical generalization or historical discussion and narration. In recent years, with the change of study style, the academic circles in this field are gradually breaking the inherent or foreign framework, taking this special and valuable laborer literature as an important part of national literature, giving scientific exploration and accurate narration, and striving to make our new literary history have higher academic characteristics of the nation and socialist countries.

As for the collection and research of folk literature, it is also closely related to cultural history and culturology. Cultural history, especially culturology, is still quite young in China. The exploration and narration of cultural history and culturology should naturally be aimed at the whole culture of the world or nation, including both material culture and spiritual culture; It is not only the culture of the upper class, but also the culture of the general public. The literature of working people is of course an important cultural event in quantity and quality. It should be pointed out that it also contains other cultural elements and is closely related to various cultural events that coexist with it (for example, folk songs are related to other arts and even production activities and social organizations). Describing the cultural history of the Han nationality or other brotherly nationalities in China, and even compiling their culturology, we must never leave out or abandon this important spiritual and cultural product, otherwise it will not only make its generalization incomplete, but also affect the accuracy of the evaluation and narration of the whole cultural phenomenon. If we pay full attention to this, our cultural history and even cultural chemistry writings will not only be famous for their rare richness and national characteristics, but also attract the attention of international academic circles with high scientific nature.