Abstract:

"New Northeast Literature" has revealed the profound dimension of historical experience and transitional memory underlying the so-called "Northeast problem", emerging as a vital cultural lens for understanding knowledge production during China's transitional era. This paper explores the social implications of New Northeast Literature from a sociology of literature perspective, uncovering its connection to the subjective world of individuals navigating social transition. It argues that the representation of class experiences constitutes the core through which this literary phenomenon transcends its regional origins and evokes broad social resonance. Such representations go beyond the restoration of dignity of the "father's generation" by the "son's generation" within working-class families. Rather, they re-articulate and re-perceive class experience within the shifting discourse of class, sparking intergenerational affective resonance around themes of class mobility, anxiety, and uncertainty. Drawing on their own life upbringing experience, the writers born in the 1980s translate familial memories of class experience into tangible literary language, transforming personal trauma into an embrace of working-class ethics and a nostalgic yet distanced reminiscence of the revolutionary idealism. As contemporary youth confront the anxiety arising from class solidification and unstable class identity, they find an implicit yet pervasive emotional resonance with the "class faller" figures depicted in New Northeast Literature—a resonance deeply rooted in their lived experience of accelerated social transformation and the loosening of identity hierarchies. Ultimately, the paper reveals literature's role as a medium of collective memory and public reflection in times of social transition, underscoring the multifaceted ways individuals navigate self-worth and identity amid structural uncertainty.

Key words: sociology of literature, New Northeast Literature, social transition, memory, class, generation