No description available.

In recent years, literature in Taiwan has developed dynamically in a context of rapid social change and intense debate in intellectual circles over ideology. Chu Tien-wen (1956- ) is the eldest daughter of the most notable literary family in Taiwan; the principal founder of the "Three-Three" literary coterie in the late 1970s and the most successful screenwriter of the Taiwanese New Cinema in the 1980s. However, as yet no book-length study has been devoted to the works of this important figure in the contemporary Taiwan literary scene. The present thesis is a study of Chu T'ien-wen's work up to 1996, with chapters arranged broadly in chronological order. It traces the formation of her early sinocentric, utopian political and social beliefs, and their modification in the light of her increasing contact with Taiwan-centred Nativist ideas. This study endeavours to address the many facets of Chu's writing identity (Chinese tradition - Taiwan identity - Feminism - Creative writing), and examine how her works reflect her maturing understanding under the influence of changes in society. Forced to re-evaluate her ideas by the clash between her vision of Confucian Chinese ideals and the development of Taiwan-centred Nativism, Chu broke through to her unique style in Splendour of the End of the Century, a collection of stories which won immediate critical acclaim both for its unconventional subject matter and its unorthodox style. Since then Chu, in writing about the moral and spiritual decadence of modern urban life in The Notebook of a Desolate Man, has maintained her basic belief in the role of the shih, but, at the same time, she has yielded to the inevitability of destruction of traditional values. Nonetheless, her writing on previously unmentionable subjects has broadened the parameters of what is acceptable in literature. This study will demonstrate that in writing her "decadent" fiction, and through her depiction of sensual refinement, Chu showed that social changes in Taiwan had forced her to accept the fact that Confucian thought has irretrievably lost its primacy in intellectual life, and that her original utopian vision is no longer attainable. As she accepts democracy more, she has had to leave behind her early ideal, be more pragmatic, and become a "decadent" writer philosophically.

Although modern Taiwanese literature is emphasized in recent years, there are few dissertations about classic Taiwanese literature. In this dissertation, the author tries to explore into the national consciousness presented in Wang Song¡¦s poetry. Wang Song is a classic poet in Taiwan when the Japanese were ruling Taiwan. Therefore, he has to present his national consciousness implicitly in his poetry. The author tries to explain his national consciousness through the three stages of Wang Song¡¦s life. This is because his poetry is deeply related with his life experience. The readers can observe Wang Song¡¦s paradoxical emotion in his poetry. This paradoxical emotion results from his national consciousness. Wang Song grew up in a traditional chinese family and he believes he is a Chinese. This is why he can¡¦t accept the Japanese government. Through the discussion of Wang Song¡¦s national consciousness, we can understand his motive of creation and the real meaning of his poetry. The second chapter introduces Wang Song¡¦s life and his work. The third chapter brings in the creative style of the classic Taiwanese society which Wang Song lived in. The forth chapter talks about Wang Song¡¦s creative style and his theory of creation. The fifth and sixth chapter are the analysis of the national consciousness in Wang Song¡¦s poetry. Although Wang Song¡¦s poetry are not as good as the other poets in the classic Chinese literature, his work shows the national consciousness when he survives in a colonialized society. Through the reading of his poetry, the author offers a way to understand the Taiwanese literary work during the Japanese colonializaiton.

The prose essay, a once dominant genre in pre-modern Chinese literature, is now a marginalized category as compared with fiction in modern Taiwanese literature. This speculation, however, does not apply to the reversed status of these two genres in the middle school literature education. The prose writing, especially the artistic essay, still occupies the largest portion of modern literature education. While universities are commonly seen as a site where literary canons are produced, revised and distributed, and where literary history is debated and constructed, these canons and literary history may be not as influential as one might think. Concurrently, a very different curriculum–which also means a different way of assessing value–is being taught in secondary schools, a place where social relations and structures are reproduced. This thesis aims to study this disjunction between the literature research and literature education. By examining the crucial moments when the literary genres and selections significantly changed, this study aims to reveal the often-overlooked ideologies hidden behind the adoption of a specific form in contemporary Taiwan’s literary textbooks. By examining the historical contexts, national policies, public consensus and the particular trajectories of the involved intellectuals, this study aims to explore the possible but less perceptible beliefs behind the adoption of a specific literary form, which is often veiled by common presumptions. / text

Stories about aborigines in a settler society, especially stories about aboriginal maidens and settler men, tend to become national allegories. Initially, the aboriginal maiden is a figure for colonial landscapes and resources, while later, in her conversion in fact or fiction from aboriginal to settler, she helps build national identity. Yet after being romanced, the aboriginal maiden’s fate is to disappear from settler consciousness, because she is displaced by the national settler mother or because the settler loses interest in her, only to return in abjection to haunt the settler conscience. In her return as a prostitute, a commodified bride or a ghost, she disturbs the discourse of ‘national domestication’, the notion of nation as family. Though she returns in abjection, an Amazonian association tends to linger in the person of the aboriginal maiden, an association that suggests the kind of self-empowerment on which a healthy liberal society depends. In other words, the figure of the aboriginal maiden tends to be used in the construction, the contestation, and potentially the reconstruction of national identity in a settler society. While I discuss examples from settler societies around the world, particularly the story of Pocahontas, and try to contribute to ‘settler colonial discourse studies’, I focus on postwar Taiwan. This dissertation proposes the notions of the ‘settler society’ and the Habermasian public sphere as ‘frames’ for the study of Taiwanese literature. I show how the Formosan aboriginal maiden has been appropriated for the construction and critique of both Chinese and Taiwanese nationalisms. I argue that while nationalism is partly about social control and the advancement of particular interests, writers who have romanced the Formosan aborigine have been implicitly participating in a debate about national domestication, the telos of which is the democratic imagination of a good society, one in which the Formosan aborigines will feel in some sense ‘at home’, though perhaps not as members of the ‘national family’. Finally, under the rubric of ‘alternative aboriginal modernities’, I discuss stories that reread the romance of the Formosan aborigine by aboriginal writers who have entered the national debate.

Stories about aborigines in a settler society, especially stories about aboriginal maidens and settler men, tend to become national allegories. Initially, the aboriginal maiden is a figure for colonial landscapes and resources, while later, in her conversion in fact or fiction from aboriginal to settler, she helps build national identity. Yet after being romanced, the aboriginal maiden’s fate is to disappear from settler consciousness, because she is displaced by the national settler mother or because the settler loses interest in her, only to return in abjection to haunt the settler conscience. In her return as a prostitute, a commodified bride or a ghost, she disturbs the discourse of ‘national domestication’, the notion of nation as family. Though she returns in abjection, an Amazonian association tends to linger in the person of the aboriginal maiden, an association that suggests the kind of self-empowerment on which a healthy liberal society depends. In other words, the figure of the aboriginal maiden tends to be used in the construction, the contestation, and potentially the reconstruction of national identity in a settler society. While I discuss examples from settler societies around the world, particularly the story of Pocahontas, and try to contribute to ‘settler colonial discourse studies’, I focus on postwar Taiwan. This dissertation proposes the notions of the ‘settler society’ and the Habermasian public sphere as ‘frames’ for the study of Taiwanese literature. I show how the Formosan aboriginal maiden has been appropriated for the construction and critique of both Chinese and Taiwanese nationalisms. I argue that while nationalism is partly about social control and the advancement of particular interests, writers who have romanced the Formosan aborigine have been implicitly participating in a debate about national domestication, the telos of which is the democratic imagination of a good society, one in which the Formosan aborigines will feel in some sense ‘at home’, though perhaps not as members of the ‘national family’. Finally, under the rubric of ‘alternative aboriginal modernities’, I discuss stories that reread the romance of the Formosan aborigine by aboriginal writers who have entered the national debate.

CHANG, HSIAO-FENG who was famous for her essays in the mid and late 1960s has enjoyed an excellent reputation for her works and has been well-known author of a number of books for her wide-ranging artistic creation field. Especially, the achievement of her lyrical essays is remarkable with both qualities of rationality and sensibility, the style of the work is most changeful; she has many works which are imaginative and flexible language utilization; the materials of her works are diverse and the essence of her thought is rich in humane concerns. Her works not only can derive the advantages from the classic traditional cultures but also present the appearance of modern literature. In addition to the tender and sensitiveness, as a woman writer, her writing is of lightheartedness and vigor. A unique style of her essays assures her unique status in Taiwanese literary circles. The thesis sets out to study those lyrical essays which had ever been published from 1966 to 2003. First of all, we will provide an objective look at the external factors such as the experience of the writer, the characteristics of literature, and the conditions of her lyrical essays creation in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding on the features of her works. At last, we sum up and clear out the plentiful content of her works which is full of the effects of the artistic achievements on her literary skills. Hoping that the unique meaning and value of CHANG, HSIAO-FENG's lyrical essays in Taiwan literary circles can be identified. This thesis consists of five chapters: Chapter One is ¡§Introduction¡¨ which presents the motives, objectives, the review of the previous studies, the definition of ¡§lyrical essays¡¨, and the establishment of the research scope as well as the research method. Chapter Two is the general discussion of CHANG, HSIAO-FENG and her lyrical essays. We will focus on an all-dimensional discussion of her life experience and divide her life into three stages to indicate that how the life experience influence her works and to explore her own endeavors in engaging in both of creation and editing and the results. This is the preparation for discussing her works. Secondly, we explore the concept of literature. We describe her idea and principle on the literature and creation relating to the discussion of her works as the foundation of cross reference. Moreover, this paper tries to give a general overview of her essay topics and the change of the styles of works at different stages. Chapter Three. ¡§Evolution of her works.¡¨ We review and summarize the content of lyrical essays at different stages. This thesis aims to explore and analyze from three aspects to present the status of her emotions and a broad perspectives on human concerns of CHANG, HSIAO-FENG. Chapter Four. ¡§Artistic Skills.¡¨ We review her lyrical essays and put her great achievements on the artistic skills in order synthetically. With the investigations from four aspects, we sense the outstanding artistic achievements on the skills of the lyrical essays. Chapter Five is ¡§Conclusion¡¨. The author briefly summarizes the critics and suggestions in previous studies from chapter one to four. We place the meaning and value of CHANG, HSIAO-FENG¡¦s essays in the objective and fair positioning. The writer brings out the suggestive guideline for the research workers in the future.

In this thesis, Taiwanese Aboriginal Literature from the mid 1980s is the focus of discussion. The material I will cover includes literature in the genre of poetry, prose, fiction and song lyrics. I situate my thesis in the field of literary and cultural studies based on contemporary aboriginal writing. Application of postcolonial-colonial discourse, such as diaspora and articulation, explicates the close relationship between the socio-political context and Taiwanese Aboriginal Literature, in particular, the process of re-construction of aboriginal identity. My thesis develops from the following hypothesis: firstly, the concerns expressed in aboriginal writing are closely tied to social and cultural issues, such as the disruption, or construction of aboriginal heritages, under or after the rule of colonial governments. Secondly, as a result of broader changes in Taiwanese society, writers’ focus and strategies change with their specific social environments. To compare the shared and different characteristics of aboriginal writing and to summarize its development, I examine two periods of Aboriginal Literature and relate them to the internal and external factors pertinent to the writing. Chapter Two and Three contain textual analysis of Aboriginal Literature. Chapter Two “The Pre-Shanhai Period” introduces literature by Walis, Hu Defu, Monaneng, Tien Yage and Wenchi. These are works closely related to aboriginal political movements and deal with the disruption of indigenous communities. Chapter Three “The Shanhai Period” discusses Taiwanese Aboriginal Literature of the Shanhai Period through the works of Auvini, Lanpoan, and Vava. The findings illustrate the validity of the above hypothesis through discussion on the relationship between theme and period, change of writing position as a result of the social contexts of the time when the writer wrote, and strategies aboriginal authors deploy to reconstruct aboriginal identity. The two periods of literature show changes in aboriginal writers’ speaking positions, that is, as pan-aboriginal speakers, or as tribal speakers, or as individuals. In its first stage of development, Taiwanese Aboriginal Literature was a discourse about survival and about appealing for justice. Writers wrote to make sense of the world in which they live. In writing they asked questions pertinent to their identity: first, “What does it mean to be born as a Taiwanese Aboriginal, or as one of the Bunun people, or the Atayal people? Writers wrote mainly to counter the perspectives imposed by the colonizers, and to pass on indigenous knowledge. In the second stage of development, Aboriginal Literature reached a period of negotiation and border crossing between indigenous culture and colonial cultures. At this stage, many writers asked: “What does my traditional culture mean to me in modern society?” Out of speculation on cultural differences, they wrote to know themselves so as to position themselves in a challenging modern, globalized society. Through this process aboriginal writers attempted to build up aboriginal subjectivity in Taiwanese literature. This study demonstrates that the writing position and strategy of identity construction in Taiwanese Aboriginal Literature shows a development from a literature of resistance to a literature of cultural building and self-examination. It is from the Shanhai period onwards that Taiwanese Aboriginal Literature gradually seeks and forms a literary norm. The literature under study manifests diverse expressions of identity. The writing process further demonstrates a dialogue of aboriginal writers with mainstream society, a constant diasporic process of generating new indigenous subjectivity. As such, the study brings an understanding of Taiwanese Aboriginal Literature to Western readers and scholars to facilitate future studies in this field.

This thesis provides a comparative reading to selected writings from Anglophone Trinidadian writer Sam Selvon and Japanophone Taiwanese writer Weng Nao, demonstrating the link between these two authors’ specific representation of multiple diasporic models of Caribbean diaspora and Taiwanese diaspora respectively and its influence on diasporic identity narratives. This study provides a cross-linguistic/ cultural perspective on comparative postcolonial literary studies, which helps to move beyond the primary focus of Anglophone texts and contexts. Although the focused two authors Sam Selvon and Weng Nao come from different historical specificities and linguistic backgrounds that urge them produce their narratives in different ways and tones of tackling issues that they have encountered in each socio-political and cultural contexts respectively, their works provides outstanding examples of how contemporary diasporic routes—both geographically and metaphorically, have significant influence on literary productions that should not be categorised by its geographical or linguistic boundaries, and can only be fully understood by linking one to another from the legacies of colonialism and the triangle models of diasporic routes. The diasporic identity, as being illustrated in both of their works, has been evolved with geographical movements and transformed into an iconic concept that makes new forms of artistic production possible. Diasporic literature, therefore, should not be limited into traditional disciplinary compartmentalisation of national literary studies. By bringing the focus on the multiple diasporic journeys, the identity representation reflected in the literary work in this study helps to identify the complexity and boundary crossing within Anglophone literature and Japanophone literature, which have already transformed into literary works of being able to depict a more complex model of modern cultures—endless traveling and hybrid. By bringing forth the excluded Japanophone texts in the field of postcolonial studies to be compared with the texts from the prominent Anglophone postcolonial writer Sam Selvon, this thesis hopes to offer some insights into the reassessment of the literary status of Weng Nao and the significance of his works in the world literary stage, and, furthermore, to identify how Japanophone literary works might be compatible with postcolonial analysis.

Abstract The Hai-Wai-Chi Society, an overseas organization derived from the ¡§Chi Society¡¨ based in Shanghai, was initiated and founded by Hsu Fu-Yuan, one of the six poets of the Chi Society. Towards the end of the Hung Kung reign of the late Ming dynasty, in the wake of the defeat of the Sungchiang uprising staged by the society, Hsu continued to work for the recovery of the Ming legacy against the ruling Qing regime. At first, he left Shanghai to follow Emperor Lungwu in Fujian. After Emperor Lungwu was defeated, he proceeded to Choushan to follow King Lu and cooperated with Chang Huang-Yen. Later on, after Choushan was seized by the Qing army, Hsu accompanied King Lu under the shelter of Koxinga in Xiamen. It was at this point that the society came to its apex. When Koxinga took hold of Taiwan following his defeat at Nanjing battle, the society members began to enter the island along with the soldiers. Therefore, the literature of Hai-Wai-Chi Society is viewed as the beginning of Han Taiwanese literature. Taiwan Shih Cheng by Lien Heng refers to Hsu Fu-Yuan, Chang Huang-Yen, Lu Jo-Teng, Sheng Chuan-Chi, Chao Tsung-Lung, Chen Shih-Ching as ¡§The Six Poets of Hai-Wai-Chi Society.¡¨ This paper, entitled A Study of Three Poets in the Hai-Wai-Chi Society, is intended to follow the same way of thinking in its exploration of Hsu Fu-Yuan, Chang Huang-Yen, and Lu Jo-Teng through the existing anthology of the society. Meanwhile, the relevant literature concerning the other three poets will be reviewed for necessary references. The Hai-Wai-Chi Society is characterized by its composition of core members, mainly loyalists to King Lu, who followed Koxinga to Taiwan as a consequence of the fall of Choushan. Mourning over the end of the Ming empire, intellectuals of high morality and talent assembled to form a society of poetry to express their emotions toward the fatherland. The members of the Hai-Wai-Chi Society were actively involved in the fight against the Qing court. In spite of successive defeats, they would live and die in exile overseas rather than surrender as subjects of the Qing regime. The Introduction aims to explain the motivation of this study, the meaning and formation of The Hai-Wai-Chi Society, with a literature review of the three poets. The first chapter explores the public opinions of The Dong-Lin Party¡]ªFªLÄÒ¡^ and the Restoration Society¡]´_ªÀ¡^ in the Late Ming period, and the poetry of patriotism by Chen Tzu-Lung and Hsia Wang-Chun of The Hai-Wai-Chi Society, to be defined in this study as two typical kinds of heritage of The Hai-Wai-Chi Society. The second chapter gives an analysis of the historical background of South Ming royalists fighting against the Qing regime and the formation and development of The Hai-Wai-Chi Society. The third chapter is focused on the Tiao-Huang-Tang Manuscript by Hsu Fu-Yuan to study his overseas poems that express his uncompromising anti-Qing mentality and noble patriotic integrity. The fourth chapter represents the social reality of war-ridden Kinmen during the Koxinga period based on Niao-Yi Poetry and Liu-An Anthology by Lu Jo-Teng. The fifth chapter deals with Chi-Ling Grass, Ping-Tsa Collection, and Tsai-Wei Recitation by Chang Huang-Yen to distinguish him as a great noble Ming loyalist who had fought against the Qing power for 19 years overseas. The Conclusion sums up the poetry by the three poets as: (1) a reflection of history with a national concern, (2) an expression of opposition against invasion with a firm anti-Qing determination, and (3) a kind of oceanic literature with a universal sympathy.