Within a tightly controlled environment, literature has become the major screen onto which the political class of the People's Republic of China projects some of its battles. This work explores the potential of literary analysis for illuminating the social, intellectual and political history of the PRC, illustrating the swings in the party line with stories, articles, and cartoons from the popular press. Wagner focuses on two periods of relative openness - the early 1950s and the period of the late 1970s - early 1980s. He provides studies of those works that have generated many heated conflicts and expands from these to include broader conclusions. This book, which exposes materials that have hitherto scarcely been tapped, should offer new insights to those interested in Chinese literature, Russian and East European literature, and modern social and political history.