【作者】 王延彬；

【导师】 胡铁生；

【作者基本信息】 吉林大学 ， 比较文学与世界文学， 2014， 博士

【摘要】 通常，学术界达成的共识是“文学即人学”（高尔基语）。那么，战争文学除了书写战争本身以外，战争中的人更是其关注的核心内容。战争小说以审美的方式去审视、描写和阐释战争，揭示人在战争中的生存状态与命运。文学审美性是包括战争文学在内的一切文学类型的基本属性。严格说来，完全不具备文学审美性的作品不能算作文学作品。战争小说是战争文学的主要表现形式之一，它并非简单机械地描写、复述和再现战争，而是审美主体见之于战争这一审美客体的一种能动反映。这种文学审美性的内涵包括两个组成部分，即通过语言、文字、修辞、创作手法与风格等构成的文学艺术表现形式和被审美主体艺术化了的社会生活。前者具有非功利性特征，而后者则不可避免地带有一定的功利性成分。战争文学并非历史，但却与历史形影相随，本质上是人类对于战争历史的个体体验性记忆，是硝烟散去之后人们对战争的反思和对本体的反省，是时代和历史的见证,因而战争文学审美也就难以与具体的战争、特定的历史阶段和共时的社会环境相脱节。这里既有审美主体艺术个性的张扬，也有人本性中的英雄崇拜，还有悲天悯人的人性呼唤，更有超越战争、反对战争的理性呐喊。小说家在其作品中对战争推动社会向前发展的作用予以肯定的同时，更多的是对战争的残酷性、破坏性和人性扭曲的揭示与批判，以文学审美特质来反映他们对不同战争的态度与情感。这种来自于不同审美主体，或同一主体不同阶段，以及不同语境下的态度与情感带有明显的多样性美学特征，具体表现在对战争审美的个人认同、民族认同、国家认同和人类共同情感认同上。而人的多重身份，常常会让这诸多“认同”范畴之间变得不再泾渭分明，也绝非二元对立或非此即彼。同时，事物普遍联系的规律又会导致它们之间的交叉互补以及错综复杂的认知程度。在战争文学作品表层结构中，这种现象通常表现为主人公灵魂深处的全面“内战”爆发。本我的诉求、道义的拷问、良心的质疑、人性的抗议、荣誉的诱惑和信仰的感召足以让其左右彷徨、进退失据，饱受“鱼与熊掌不可兼得”之苦，承受在个人、集体、民族、国家和人类之间被迫多难选择的炼狱煎熬。由此观之，审美主体所面对的审美客体之上经常存在着一种难以名状的模糊性与两面性。战争小说作为小说谱系中的一个重要组成成分，自然具有其他题材小说的一般性不可或缺的特征。但是，战争小说又拥有文学审美的一般形态以外的特殊品质。其史诗性、崇高性、英雄性、悲剧性、传奇性和批判性等审美范畴的叠加构成了个性鲜明的战争小说审美特质。人们普遍认为战争是政治的延续，是流血的政治，因而从战争小说中挖掘、提炼、研究战争文学的审美性在战争文学的研究领域就显得举足轻重。美国自从其建立的那一天开始，就与战争结下了不结之缘，其不同时期的战争小说所蕴含的深刻文学审美意义又为战争小说的文学审美性研究提供了丰富、鲜活的范例和详实的论据。从1775年4月19日莱克星屯的枪声拉开了美国独立战争的帷幕，1776年7月4日大陆会议通过并发表独立宣言，一直到1783年9月3日英国正式承认北美十三个英属殖民地的独立，历经八年的美国独立战争宣告结束。这场战争对于美国来说无异于开天辟地，它对于美利坚民族而言意义重大，影响深远。美国独立战争具有资产阶级革命的性质。其结局是英国殖民统治的桎梏和旧的生产关系被打得粉碎，社会生产力得到解放，为美国资本主义的发展扫清了障碍。同时，殖民地人民获得空前解放，赢得了民族独立，建立了自己的国家，所以从这个意义上讲，美国独立战争又是一场伟大的民族解放战争，因而必然会成为美国独立战争文学的重要审美内容与支点。反映独立战争主题的文学作品，特别是小说，在美国战争文学中占有独特的地位，对其文学审美性的研究与挖掘有助于学术界重新审视与认识这一时期美国的历史、政治、经济和文化。反映美国独立战争的小说在整体风格上与其他战争小说有着很大的不同。其不同点主要表现在作家对战争的态度、战争叙事的风格和民族情感的认同上。应该说反映独立战争的小说，特别是早期发表的一些我们耳熟能详的作品，基本上都是以浪漫主义作为总的基调，所表现的是一种不折不扣的爱国主义精神和英雄主义传奇。这种浪漫主义基调在美国战争小说审美史上也算是一道亮丽的风景线。可以说，从作家对这场战争的积极态度和浪漫主义的叙事手法到作家对民族精神的肯定与爱国主义的颂扬，均充分满足了美国人民对于民族解放和国家独立的审美需求。1821年詹姆斯·库柏出版了他的战争小说《间谍》。该作品被认为是美国战争小说的开山之作，并使库柏从此蜚声世界文坛，形成美国19世纪30年代战争小说创作领域中的“库柏派”。库柏本人及其追随者共同用小说书写了美国独立战争民族精神的血色浪漫史。浪漫主义审美创作到20世纪30年代才开始逐步转向了现实主义写真。美国独立之后，民族矛盾已经下降到了第二位，国内阶级矛盾上升到了首位，且经历了半个多世纪的发展之后，到了19世纪50年代末，这种矛盾已经到了一种空前激化的程度。如果说美国独立战争作为一场完全意义上的正义战争这一论断不会受到更多质疑的话，那么美国南北战争的性质则的确有不同的声音存在。主流观点一般认为美国南北战争是一场内战，是继独立战争后的美国第二次资产阶级革命，是一场捍卫国家统一的正义战争。它阻止了分裂，维护了统一；废除了南方落后的奴隶制度，解放了生产力，为美国资本主义进一步发展铺平了道路。对于美国南北战争爆发的起因，马克思从社会历史发展的高度，分析并得出了结论，即南北战争是南方的奴隶制度与北方的自由劳动制度之间的斗争。战争爆发的原因是这两种制度已无法共存于北美大陆，而只能以其中一种制度占主导。战争造成的巨大伤亡是迄今为止美国所参与过的国内外战争中伤亡人数最多的一次。战争对于南北双方感受各异。对北方而言，战后南方黑人奴隶获得了解放，蓄奴制被废除，资本主义雇佣劳动取代了奴隶制，因而极大地解放了生产力，进一步促进了资本主义发展。战争捍卫了国家统一，避免了国家分裂，恢复了联邦政府权威的合法性。而对于南方来说，他们失去的是传统的田园牧歌式的生活、种植园主控制下的蓄奴制和那份割舍不下的南方情节。他们的失败不仅表现在物质层面，而且也表现在精神层面。基于人本主义视角，对南北双方而言，这场内战消耗了双方大量的人力和物力，给美国人民带来了长时间的、多方面的影响，尤其是精神上受到了极大的伤害。在美国南北战争小说的创作过程中，作家们对南北战争的立场决定了他们怎样去书写这场战争，进而影响到其审美内容的筛选。而多数作家对战争所持的立场又往往决定于自身的归属。换言之，多数北方作家与南方作家由于所处地域不同，对这场战争的立场也是不同的，因此在南北战争小说文学审美活动中表现出很大的差异性。战争小说中，大多数作家把主题定位在表现和抒发爱国情怀和关照兄弟情义，表达无奈的伤感和咏叹悲情的挽歌，超越自身立场和反思战争等几个方面。这一期间库柏派浪漫传奇式的战争小说虽为数不少，但乏善可陈；现实主义作品较前者要少，但又不乏精品。其中，《飘》以典型的南方视角，史诗般地演绎了当时美国南方种植园主阶层的生活经历，思想感情和美国南方内战前后翻天覆地的变化，特别是内战后渐行渐远的旧南方以及战争的毁灭与南方芸芸众生的命运。作者玛格丽特·米切尔成功地对南方形象进行了典型化定型处理，对南方的田园生活和区域文化的方方面面，详略并施，打造了“一部庄园传奇的百科全书”。另一部反映美国内战的经典小说是斯蒂芬克莱恩的《红色英勇勋章》。该小说的审美方法、意蕴与风格的独到之处对美国战争文学创作产生了很大的影响，在美国战争文学史上留下了浓重的一笔。作品对战争的反思与批判被评论界认为是美国反战小说的雏形。从小说对交战双方、战争背景和人物姓名的模糊化处理来看，作者将审美观照的主线集中在战争之外，影射现实生活与战争一样具有某种荒谬性与荒诞性，带有对现代主义的前瞻性特征。该作品被认为是自然主义经典战争文学作品，其影响日后在多斯·帕索斯和海明威等作家的作品中皆有所反映。第一次世界大战是一场被公认的列强之间争夺世界霸权的非正义战争。战争爆发于1914年6月，而美国直到1917年4月6日才宣布参战。美国之所以没有在第一时间加入这场战争，原因是多方面的。战争爆发伊始，美国一是需要时间备战，进行必要的经济动员与军事准备；二是不失时机地游离于两大军事集团之间从事军火贸易活动，从中攫取高额利润；三是由于当时的美国社会不具备派兵参战的民意基础。美国由于参战较晚，战争中损失相对不大，然而这场战争给美国人，尤其是曾在战争宣传下，怀着为人类民主而战、维护世界和平的理想而走上前线的青年知识分子带来的肉体和精神上的双重创伤却是巨大的。理想和信念的幻灭让一代年轻人顿然失去了前行的方向，陷入了深深的迷惘当中。这种情绪广泛见诸于美国一战战争小说当中。其审美取向、审美把握、审美架构基本上是以“迷惘的一代”核心作家为其主流。归结起来，一战战争小说审美的主要范围包括书写战场的残酷恐怖与非人性、战争的荒诞与无意义、军队的黑暗与暴虐以及理想的幻灭与灵魂的绝望，进而唤起读者对战争、人生与命运的思考。“迷惘的一代”没有统一的纲领，是介于现实主义与现代主义之间的一个文学流派。其主要成员，如多斯·帕索斯、厄内斯特·海明威、爱德华·卡明斯等作家都参加过一战，其创作以现实主义为主，兼有自然主义与现代主义倾向。他们从人本主义出发，观照人在战争中的境状与命运，通过对战场、战斗层面的现实主义和自然主义描写，旨在揭露战争的残酷性、血腥性和惨烈性，进而对这场战争非理性和反人道的实质进行深刻的反思与有力的批判。通过描写军人对战争意义的幻灭和理想信念的破灭，来表现一种普遍的厌战、反战和迷惘情绪，进而审视战争造成的人性扭曲与人的异化。有些作品把战争作为背景，淡化战斗场面描写，而把审美目光投向了战争对人的精神和肉体的双重摧残之上，揭示出这种摧残既来自于战场上的敌人，同时也来自于己方军队中的黑暗、专制和极权，进而最终把批判的矛头直接指向了自己的军官和整个战争机器，凸显战争的荒谬、无意义、毁灭性与反人类性本质，把反战主题与人类命运紧紧联系在一起。因而，第一次世界大战战争小说的审美意蕴及其走向对美国战争小说书写传统产生的重大而又深远的影响是不容低估的。第二次世界大战是古往今来人类历史上规模最大的战争。与一战相比，其规模更大、伤亡更多、破坏性更强、影响也更加深远。其惨烈程度前所未有，给参战双方的人民造成了巨大的灾难性后果，使人类数千年文明几乎毁于一旦。1939年9月1日德国发动闪电战，一举占领波兰。这一战争行动导致英国和法国联合对德国宣战，战争开始于欧洲，但战争之火迅速席卷了大半个世界。美国自一战后一直奉行孤立主义政策。一直到第二次世界大战前夕，美国主张孤立主义的势力仍十分强大，他们极力反对美国在美洲以外承担任何责任，更不愿冒险加入这场战争。二战爆发伊始，美国像在一战中表现的那样，采取了中立政策。其原因是多方面的，尽管不能排除其“渔翁得利”的功利动机，但在很大程度上还是由于美国民众反对参战的态度和在军事上准备尚不够充分所致。1942年12月7日，日本偷袭美国太平洋舰队，令其几乎全部覆没。12月8日美对日宣战，11日对德、意宣战。自此，美国正式加入世界反法西斯阵营，对反法西斯战争在全世界取得最后的胜利起到了举足轻重的作用。文学的美来源于生活，是审美主体对于客体的一种艺术把握，是对现实生活的一种能动的反映，是浓缩了的、特定的社会文化和具体的价值取向。仅就美国战争文学而言，尽管一战战争文学作品对二战后小说，特别是战后初期战争小说的审美具有一定的影响与传承，但后者无论是在审美意识形态上还是审美意蕴上与前者相比，都存在着明显的差异。有关二战的战争小说从主题到创作手法和技巧上都开始呈现出一种多元化趋势，审美视角较二战前战争小说也更加宽泛。作品直接描写、反映现实的情形已不多见，且鲜有激烈的政治倾向。二战的反法西斯性质决定了二战后较少有激烈地质疑这场战争的意义、直接怀疑战争正义性的作品问世，而是转而针对战争的残酷性和惨烈性以及军队内部的黑暗、专制、践踏民主等内容施以审美观照。将军营描绘成社会的缩影，以军队中的官兵矛盾冲突来影射社会问题是这一时期二战战争小说中较常见的一种审美倾向。尽管如此，厌战和反战等这些美国战争小说的传统主题并未完全消失，而是从抽象的人性角度去反思战争和诅咒战争。从《裸着与死者》和《从这里到永恒》等战后早期的一些作品中尚可以看到一战战争小说的影子，而到了海勒的《第二十二条军规》发表，则标志着二战战争小说进入了一个由现代主义发展而来的后现代主义阶段。这种现象与战后30年间美国国际、国内各种矛盾激化有着密切关系。国际上冷战开始，朝鲜战争铩羽而归，越南战争深陷泥潭；国内经历了麦卡锡主义而人人自危的20世纪50年代、颓废与骚动的60年代。对于战争小说审美的直接影响是仅靠先前循规蹈矩的审美策略已不能够适应审美客体的荒诞与疯狂。于是，以黑色幽默为代表的后现代主义战争文学审美便成了60年代之后美国战争小说审美的主要方式。进入新世纪，后现代主义审美已露颓废之象，为摆脱这种困境，使战争小说对人文精神层面进行再定位，战争小说家们在后现代主义语境下，试图另辟蹊径，以个性化的方式去诠释历史和反思战争，进而完善战争小说审美策略，以期更有效地实现战争小说的文学审美价值。近年来新现实主义战争小说和新历史主义战争小说的出现日益受到文学批评界的重视，也为后现代主义语境下战争小说文学审美多元走向形成了有力的支撑和详实的注脚。从独立战争到二战结束，美国战争小说经历了产生、发展、成熟和繁荣几个发展阶段。不同历史时期的美国战争小说除了在文学审美方面有着明显的时代印记以外，还与每一时期重大的历史事件、政治经济和文化背景、社会思潮、战争观念以及社会心理等方面有着密切关系，从不同的角度诠释了美国社会历史的发展轨迹以及美国人战争观与历史观的嬗变。美国战争小说经历了浪漫主义、自然主义、现代主义直到后现代主义和新历史主义文学浪潮的洗礼而最终走向成熟。对于不同时期美国战争小说文学审美特征与历史流变的探究会将有助于人们更加深刻地了解美国和世界，促使人们对战争与和平、人性与人道、公平与正义、命运与归宿等相关命题进行理性的思考与评价。更多还原

【Abstract】 Usually, the academic consensus is that "literature is manology"(Golky). Then,besides writing war itself, man in the war is the writing focus of war literature as well.War novels examine, describe and interpret war aesthetically, revealing man’s livingcondition and destiny in the war. Literary aesthetics is the cardinal property of allliterary categories, including war literature. Strictly speaking, writings without literaryaesthetic fuction are not literary works. War novel is one of the main forms of warliterature, and it is not a simple mechanical description, repetition and reproduction ofwar, but a aesthetic subject’s dynamic reflection to the war as the aesthetic object. Theaesthetic connotation includes two components, namely the literary expression formconsisting of language, text, rhetoric, writing techniques and literary style, and theaesthetic social life composed by the aesthetic subject. The former has non-utilitarianfeatures, while the latter inevitably has it to a certain extent. War literature is nothistory, but the shadow behind the history. It is essentially the man’s individualexperience memory of war history, man’s reflection on both the war and himself withthe the tide of war receding, and the witness of times and the history, so the literaryaesthetics is impossible to ungear the specific historical stage, the particular war andthe synchronic social environment. Publicity There are not only the aesthetic subject’sartistic personality and hero worship in human nature, but also the compassionate callof humanity and the rational cry beyond, and against the war..While novelists in asense affirmin that the war promotes the social development in their works, they domore to reveal and criticize the war’s cruelty, destruction and the distortion of humannature, and express their different attitude and sensibility to disparate wars with theaesthetic idiosyncracy of war literature. The attitudes and sensibility come from thedifferent aesthetic subjects, different stages or from the same subject in different stage,in different context, take on variety of aesthetic characteristics obviously, which canbe seen in war aesthetics’ personal identity, ethnic identity, national identity and common emotion of human identity. The multiple identities often makes these"identity" categories no longer be quite distinct from one another, or in duality. At thesame time, the rule that things generally associated will lead to cross-ruffingphenomenon among them and the perplexing cognition. In the surface structure of warliterary works, this phenomenon is usually described as the "civil war’s" breaking outin the heroes’ soul fully. Id’s appeal, morality’s torture, conscience’s questioning,humanity’s protests, honor’s temptation and belief’s inspiration are quete enough tomake them face a dilemma, hesitate to make their choice of the above mentionedcategories, suffer from "you can’t have it both ways", endure miserable purgatory tomake choice among individuality, collectivity, nationality, country and mankind.From this point of view, on the aesthetic object which the aesthetic subject of warliterature faces has a nondescript fuzziness and two sides. War novel, as an importantcomponent in the novel lineage, shares the general indispensable aestheticcharacteristic of the rest.. However, war novels have their aesthetic idiosyncracybeyond the general form of literary aesthetics. It is the superposition of epic, noble,heroic, tragic, legend and critical aesthetic categories that constitute the aestheticpersonality of war novels.War has generally been viewed as the extention of politics.It is the politics with bloodshed, so it shows the great significance to mine, refine andexplore the literary aesthetics from the war novels in the research field of warliterature. America formed the indissoluble bound with the war from the first day theUnited States was founded. The profound significance of literary aesthetics of warnovels in different historical periods have proveded this research with rich and vividexamples, and reliable arguments. From Lexington gunfire in April19，1775rising upthe curtain of American war of independence, in July4,1776the ContinentalCongress passing and issueing the Declaration of independence, to the time theindependence of the thirteen British colonies in North America recognized by Britainin September3,1783, American war of independence got its end after eight years.The war for America is tantamount to the creation of the world, and it is of greatsignificance and profound influence for the American,. The nature of American warof independence is bourgeois revolution. As a result, the shackles of of the Britishcolonial rule and the old relations of production had been smashed throughly, thesocial productive forces had been liberated, which cleared up the obstacles on the wayof capitalist development in America. Simultaneously, the colonial people got their unprecedented liberation, won national independence, set up a state of their own, so inthis sense, America war of independence is a great war of national liberation, whichshould become the important aesthetic contents of America independent war literatureand its fulcrum. Since literary works reflecting the Independence War theme,especially fictions, occupy a unique position in American war literature, it is helpfulfor the academic field to re-examine and and know better the American history,politics, economy and culture in this period of time through their studying andexploring its literary aesthetics. The general style of American independence warnovels differs from other war novels apparently. The difference is mainly manifestedin the writer’s attitude to war, war narrative style and emotions of a nation’s identity. Itshould be admitted that the independence war novels, especially those classicspublished early after the war, essentially took romanticism as their general tone, andexpressed a kind of hundred-percent spirit of patriotism and legend of heroism. Theromantic tone of novels in the aesthetic history of America war novels is a beautifulscenery line. It is the fact that American people’s aesthetic needs of national liberationand the independence of the country have been met by the writers’ positive attitudetoward the war, the romantic creating approach and the narrative techniques, theiraffirmation of the national spirit and their praise of patriotism. In1821, James Cooperpublished his war novel The Spy. The work is regarded as a ground breaking work inAmerica war novels, which made Cooper great renown in the literary world, and“Cooper school” formed in1930s. Cooper and his followers wrote the bloodyromantic history of national spirits in American Independent war through their warnovels. The romantic aesthetic creating style began to shift gradually to the realisticportrait in the1930s.After independent war, the national contradiction has dropped to second place,domestic class contradiction rose to the top, and after more than half a century ofdevelopment, this class contradiction had come to the degree of unprecedentedintensification by the end of1950s. If the viewpoint that the independent war is acompletely just war with no more doubt from the American people, then about thenature of American civil war, different voices exist actually. The mainstream viewgenerally believed that the war between the south and the north was an Americancivil war, which was the second bourgeois revolution and a just war to defend thenational unity after the American war of independence. It prevented the United Statesfrom spliting, maintained the unity successfully; abolished the backward slavery in the South, liberated the productive forces, paved the way for the further developmentof American capitalism. For the cause of the outbreak of the American civil war, KarlMarx, from the perspective of social and historical development, analysed and drewthe conclusion, namely the civil war between southen slavery and the free laborsystem in the North. The cause of the war is that the two system had been unable tocoexist on the North American continent, but only one system allowed to dominate.Many of the Casualties caused by the war is the largest number of casualties in anydomestic and foreign wars participated by America up to now. The feelings to the warbetween the north and the south would be different for people from different places.To the north, the southern black slaves were freed; slavery was abolished; and thesystem of capitalist wage labor replaced the slavery, so the productive forces wasgreatly liberated to promote the development of capitalism. The war successfullyreached its purpose to defend the national unity, to avoid secession, restore thelegitimacy of the federal government authority. For the south, what they lost includingthe idyllic life, traditional plantation under the control of slavery and the unforgetablesouthern complex. Their failure is reflected not only on the material level, but also onthe spirit level. From the humanistic perspective, on both sides, this civil warconsumed the massive manpower and resources, brought American people with theinfluence of long time in many aspects, especially in mental hurt. In the creationprocess of America civil war novels, the writers’ stance on Civil War determined howthey went about writing this war, which affected their screening of the aestheticcontents, and their belonging. In other words, the majority of the northern andsouthern writers had their different attitude and stance to the war just because of theirown different geographical location, for which the differences can be noticed clearlyin the civil war literary aesthetic activities. For most writers, the war novel themeswere focused on the following, such as performing the patriotism, caring for thebrothership, or expressing the sentiments, tragic aria and helpless elegy, or reflectingand rethingking the war beyond their utilitarian stance. During the period, the quantityof war novels with Cooper’s romantic legend style was quite a few, but short ofclassics. In contrast to the former, works look less in quantity, but full of excellentones. Among them, Gone Wth the Wind, from the typical perspective of the south,epically, displays the life experience, thoughts and feelings of plantation owners insouthen part of America, and interprets the big changes before and after the civil war,especially old South’s going far away gradually, the destruction of war and the fate of all creatures in the South. The author, Margaret Michel successfully shaped thetypical South, and discribed pastoral life and regional cultural aspects in differentlevel details to have created "a encyclopedia of manor legend". Another classic novelreflected American civil war is Stephen’s The Red Badge of Courage. The novel hasits own knack in aesthetic method, implications and the style, which has greatinfluences on the American war literature creation and leaves a lot in American warliterature history. The novel’s reflection and criticism of war has been acknowledgedto be the prototype of American anti-war novels. From the fuzzy processing on bothwar background and the name of characters in the novel, it can be figured out that themain aesthetic focus was placed outside the war by the author, and the novel reflectsthat real life has its absurdity as the war with prospective feature of modernism. Thework has been considered a classic novel in war literature of naturalism, and itsinfluence can be seen in Dos Passos, Hemingway and some other writers’ works.The World War I. was recognized as the unjust war between the great powers forworld hegemony. It broke out in June1914, and America didn’t join until April6,1917. The reasons for America not to join the war at the beginning are complex.Firstly, at the beginning of the war, America needed time for the necessary economicmobilization and military preparations. Secondly, America fully make use of thechance to trade weapons and military equipments for seizing big profit between thetwo military blocs. Thirdly, there was no public opinion basis to join the war inAmerican society at that time. As America joined the war late, relatively it lost less inthe war, but the war hurt the younger generation in America not less, especially tothose young intellectualsis who went to the European firefield with the ideal, theresponsibility and the patriotism indoctrinated by war propaganda to fight fordemocracy and the world peace. They realized they were cheated in the war, and theysuffered a lot from the double trauma when they came back to the American society.Disillusion of ideals and beliefs made one generation of young people suddenly lostlife direction, and fallen into a deep confusion. This kind of mood is widely found inAmerican war novels after World War I. The “Lost Generation” core writers’aesthetic orientation, aesthetic grasp, aesthetic schema are basically the mainstream ofwar literary creation. To sum up, the main domain of postwar war novels’ aesthetics isaround cruel, horrific, non-human battlefield, absurd and meaningless war, dark andbrutal army system, disillusioned ideal and despairing soul to arouse the thoughts onwar, life and fate."The lost generation" without unified creed is a literary genre between realism and modernism. The main members, such as Dos Passos, ErnestHemingway, Edward Cummings and some other writers had the personal experienceto participate in the war. Their literary creation of war novels mainly belongs torealism, but with naturalism and modernism tendency. They started from the view ofhumanism, pay more attention to man’s condition, situation and destiny in the war inorder to expose the cruelty, bloodiness and tragegy of war through realist andnaturalist description of battlefield fighting to deeply examine and powerfully criticizethe non-human, irrational nature of the war. Through the description of thedisillusionment of the ideal, the faith and the meaning of war, they show the readers akind of war-weariness, antiwar passions and emotional confusion, and furtherexamine the distorted human nature and the human alienation. Some of the works takethe war as the background, dilute the battle scene description, and turn the aestheticeyes to people’s mental and physical trauma, point out that the destruction and torturecame from enemies on the battlefield, but also from the allied army filled withauthoritarian, totalitarian and darkness, and eventually point to the officers and thewar machine, so as to highlight the anti-human nature of war of absurdity, destructionand meaninglessness, and associate the essence of with antiwar theme closely with thedestiny of human beings. Thus, the First World War novels’ aesthetics and its trendhave the significant and far-reaching impact on American war novel writing tradition,which can’t be undervalued. The Second World War is the largest war ever since theancient time in human history. In contrast to World War I, it has larger scale, moredevastating casualties and much more far-reaching influence. The war with anunprecedented level bitter and the disastrous consequences for people from both sidesat war almost destroyed the human civilization of several thousand of years. InSeptember1,1939, Nazi Germany occupied Poland with Blitzkrieg. The act of warmade Britain and France declared war on Germany in unison. The war started inEurope, but the flames of war spread over most half of the world in short time.Since the World War I. America had taken an isolationist policy. By the eve of WorldWar II, American isolationist forces were still very strong, they fought against USA’staking any responsibility out of America, and were reluctant to venture into this war.At the beginning of the outbreak of World War II, USA as performing in early periodin World War I., adopted a policy of neutrality. Its reason is in many aspects.Although the utilitarian motivation could not be excluded, it was largely due to publicopposition to joining the war and military preparation was inadequate yet. In December7,1942, the Japanese attacked on American Pacific Fleet, which made thefleet almost completely annihilated. On December8, America declared war on Japan,and11on Germany and Italy. Since then, America formally joined the world antifascist camp and started to play a decisive role in winning the anti fascist war over thewhole world. It is well-known that the beauty of literature originates from life, and itis the aesthetic subject’s aesthetic grasp to the art object. It is an active reflection ofreal life, and the concentration of specific social culture and the value orientation.Only America war literature is concerned, in spite of the influence from World War I.Novels on the postwar war novels, especially in the early postwar period, but the lattershowed obvious differences both in aesthetic ideology or aesthetic significancecompared with the former. About the second world war war novels, from the theme tothe skills and techniques of literary creation, are showing a trend of diversification,and aesthetic perspective of World War II war novels are more broader than before.Works directly reflecting the reality of the situation, have been rare, and few withintense political tendency. Anti fascist war determines the nature of post World WarII., so there have been few novels published with intense questioning about themeaning of the war, and direct suspicion of the just nature of the war, but to moveagainst the cruelty and misery of war, and the darkness and the autocratic tramplingon democracy in their own army. The army is often described as a miniature ofsociety, and the contradiction and the conflicts in the army between the officers andsoldiers, has been a kind of common aesthetic tendency. However, the traditionaltheme of being tired of war and antiwar in American war novels have not disappeared,but reflected on the war and cursed the war from the abstract perspective of humanity.From novels such as The Naked And the Dead and From Here to Eternity, the shadowof some of the early works can still be found, but on Heller’s Catch-22published, itmarks the American war novels have developed into the postmodernism stage frommodernism. This phenomenon is closely related to the international and demesticvarious contradictions intensifying increasingly of America during the30years afterthe war. In the world, USA has been experiencing the starting of cold war, frustrationof the Korean War and the bogging of Vietnam war, and at home, Mccarthy’s doctrineof fear in1950s and decadent and tumultuary1960s. The direct influence on warnovels is the aesthetic previous aesthetic strategies are too observant and conventionalto adapt to the absurd and crazy aesthetic object. Then, the black humor got to be therepresentative of the post-modernism aesthetics of War Novels after World War II. Entering the new century, postmodernism aesthetic has exposed the decadent situation,in order to get out of this predicament, to reposition the war novels on the humanisticspirit level, war novelists in the post-modern context, attempts to open a new path tointerpret history and reflect on the war in a personalized way, and then improve theaesthetic strategy of war novels in the hope of the more effective realization ofaesthetic value. In recent years, the emergence of New Realism creation of war novelsand the New Historicism creation of war novels has been stressed by the literarycriticism circles, but also formed the strong support and detailed footnote for thefuture direction of war novel aesthetic pluralism under the postmodern context.From the end of the war of independence to the end of the Second World War,American war novels experienced production, development, maturity and prosperityin several stages of development. American war novels in different historical periods,in addition to having obvious mark of the times of the literary aesthetics, has a closerelationship with great events, politics, economy, cultural background, the social trendof thought, and the concept of war and social psychology in each historical stage, tointerpret the development trace of the society and history, and the evolution ofAmerican view of war and conception of history. The development of American warnovels experienced, from variou angles, literary tide baptism of Romanticism,Realism, Naturalism, Modernism, Postmodernism to New Realism and NewHistoricism, and go to the final maturity. Studying and exploring the literary aestheticfeatures of America war novels in different period will help people understandAmerica and the world more deeply, urge the people to reflect and evaluate rationallywar and peace, human nature and humanism, fairness and justice, and destiny anddestination.更多还原