Title: On Wu Mi’s Acceptance of Irving Babbitt’s Literary Thought

Abstract: Influenced by Babbitt’s literary thought, Wu Mi believes that “literature is the representation of life” and his literary creation and criticism are based on and oriented by his concern for human beings and his reflections on human nature. Wu’s acceptance of Babbitt’s literary thought covers mainly three aspects: literary function, literary creation and artistic form, from which we can see his pursuit of humanistic value. However, at that time in China, national reality, Wu Mi’s tendency toward literature and debates on culture made it unlikely for him to entirely process Babbitt’s humanism, but rather to some extent deviate from it. The purpose of studying this acceptance and humanism is to explore how literature can be adapted to the new environment and play its due function under the background of the rapid development of natural sciences and the decline of humanities and social sciences, and to provide a path for the construction and development of Chinese culture in the new era.

Keywords: Wu Mi, Irving Babbitt, literary thought, acceptance

Author: Zhengqi Liu, Ph.D. Candidate, Liberal Arts College, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, China.