The Political Campaign as Genre: Ideology and Iconography during the Seventeen Years Period Yomi Braester D iscussions of literary and cinematic history in the Maoist period are entangled in the effort to distinguish “subject matter” ( tícaí ) from “style” ( tı ˘caí ). For production purposes, “subject matter” refers to themes, often preapproved and regulated for ideological content. By contrast, “style” is regarded as a formalist and nonpolitical con- cept. Even the Maoist tenet of “revolutionary realism and revolution- ary romanticism,” notably explicated by Guo Moruo in 1958, failed to identify party ideology with a speciic style. 1 The revolutionary real- ism doctrine outlines a general approach and provides speciic rules on acceptable subject matter; prescriptive rather than descriptive, it is vague on stylistic detail. The distinction between subject matter and style has hindered the writing of a history that considers both ideologi- cal and stylistic development. Ironically, the interest in genre ( leixing) since the 1980s has further impeded a historical inquiry into style in Maoist literature and ilm. In the literary ield, repudiation of dictated style led Li Tuo in the late 1980s to lump together all socialist works under the irreverent term Modern Language Quarterly 69:1 (March 2008) DOI 10.1215/00267929-2007-028 © 2008 by University of Washington 1 Guo Moruo, “Romanticism and Realism” (“Langmanzhuyi he xianshizhuyi”), in Modern Literature from China, ed. Walter J. Meserve and Ruth I. Meserve (New York: New York University Press, 1974), 315 – 24.