Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-49)

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-53).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--The University of British Columbia (Canada), 2001. / Adviser: Michael S. Duke. Includes bibliographical references.

Les fictions de Claude Simon et de Yu Hua s’affranchissent de la représentation mimétique de la réalité, traditionnellement considérée comme dogme du roman. Leurs œuvres, qui ressassent la mémoire des événements historiques dans l’Histoire du XX° siècle, ne visent pas une restauration du passé au moyen de la chronologie et de l’enchaînement de causes et d’effets. Le vécu personnel de Claude Simon et de Yu Hua les incite à réfléchir sur la valeur de l’écriture face à la violence des désastres, et à remettre en cause toutes les modalités de représentation prétendant rétablir l’ordre du monde qui est en réalité radicalement chaotique. L’aspect insaisissable, obsédant de l’Histoire les obligent à partir à la recherche de formes nouvelles, et à élaborer une transfiguration de leur objet d’écriture. Ainsi, une expérience du temps chaotique voire fantastique, la hantise des aïeux et du père, les manifestations d’un érotisme intense, d’une violence aveugle, ainsi que tous les procédés de désorganisation de la narration, toutes les étrangetés du langage, témoignent d’un constat : l’évocation du passé ne peut advenir qu’obliquement. L’importance de l’Histoire dans la diégèse et dans la genèse de leurs œuvres réfute un type de critique qui identifie ces œuvres au formalisme. Ce lien organique entre l’Histoire et la fiction montre aussi qu’une certaine littérature contemporaine, caractérisée par une volonté de rupture avec les codes classiques de la représentation romanesque, surmonte une tentation nihiliste pour suggérer une éthique. / Claude Simon and Yu Hua’s fictions abandon the traditional mimetic representation of reality. Their works, which reexamine the memory of events in the History of the 20th century, are not aimed at restoring the past by means of a chronology and a sequential linking of cause and effect. The personal life experiences of Claude Simon and Yu Hua led them to reflect on the value of writing in the face of the violence of the century’s disasters, and to question the validity of a so-called realist literature pretending to re-establish the order of the world which is in reality radically chaotic. The elusive and obsessional character of History requires the writer to set off in search of new forms, and to elaborate a transfiguration in his literary objectives. Thus, the chaotic or even fantastic experience of time, the obsessive figures of ancestors and the father, the excess of eroticism or blind violence, as well as all the disorders in the narration and the strangeness of the language, all come within an attempt to speak of a past which can only be evoked obliquely. The importance of History in the diegesis and in the genesis of their works refutes a certain type of criticism which identifies these works with formalism. This visceral connection between History and fiction also shows that contemporary literature, marked by a spirit of rupture, goes beyond nihilism and in its own way realizes an ethical value.

University of Macau / Faculty of Arts and Humanities. / Department of Chinese

Les fictions de Claude Simon et de Yu Hua s'affranchissent de la repr��sentation mim��tique de la r��alit��, traditionnellement consid��r��e comme dogme du roman. Leurs ��uvres, qui ressassent la m��moire des ��v��nements historiques dans l'Histoire du XX�� si��cle, ne visent pas une restauration du pass�� au moyen de la chronologie et de l'encha��nement de causes et d'effets. Le v��cu personnel de Claude Simon et de Yu Hua les incite �� r��fl��chir sur la valeur de l'��criture face �� la violence des d��sastres, et �� remettre en cause toutes les modalit��s de repr��sentation pr��tendant r��tablir l'ordre du monde qui est en r��alit�� radicalement chaotique. L'aspect insaisissable, obs��dant de l'Histoire les obligent �� partir �� la recherche de formes nouvelles, et �� ��laborer une transfiguration de leur objet d'��criture. Ainsi, une exp��rience du temps chaotique voire fantastique, la hantise des a��eux et du p��re, les manifestations d'un ��rotisme intense, d'une violence aveugle, ainsi que tous les proc��d��s de d��sorganisation de la narration, toutes les ��tranget��s du langage, t��moignent d'un constat : l'��vocation du pass�� ne peut advenir qu'obliquement. L'importance de l'Histoire dans la di��g��se et dans la gen��se de leurs ��uvres r��fute un type de critique qui identifie ces ��uvres au formalisme. Ce lien organique entre l'Histoire et la fiction montre aussi qu'une certaine litt��rature contemporaine, caract��ris��e par une volont�� de rupture avec les codes classiques de la repr��sentation romanesque, surmonte une tentation nihiliste pour sugg��rer une ��thique.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Portuguese

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Chinese

Dynasties of Demons: Cannibalism from Lu Xun to Yu Hua focuses on the issue of representations of the body in modern Chinese fiction. My interest concerns the relationship, or correspondence between "textual" bodies and the physical "realities" they are meant to represent, particularly where those representations involve the body as a discursive site for the intersection of state ideology and the individual. The relationship between the body and the state has been a question of profound significance for modern Chinese literati dating back to the late Qing, but it was Lu Xun who, with the publication of his short story "Kuangren riji" (Diary of a Madman), in 1918, initiated the literaty discourse on China's "apparent penchant for cannibalizing its own people. In the first chapter of my dissertation I discuss L u Xun's fiction by exploring two distinct, though not mutually exclusive issues: (1) his diagnosis of China's debilitating "spiritual illness," which he characterized as being cannibalistic; (2) his highly inventive, counter-intuitive narrative strategy for critiquing traditional Chinese culture without contributing to or stimulating his reader's prurient interests in violent spectacle. To my knowledge I am the first critic of modern Chinese literature to write about Lu Xun's erasure of the spectacle body. In Chapters II, III and IV, I discuss the writers Han Shaogong, Mo Yan, and Yu Hua, respectively, to illustrate that sixty years after Lu Xun's madman first "wrote" the prophetic words, chi ren A (eat people), a number of post-Mao writers took up their pens to announce that the human feast did not end with Confucianism; on the contrary, with the advent of Maoism the feasting began in earnest. Each of these post-Mao writers approaches the issue of China's "spiritual dysfunction" from quite different perspectives, which I have characterized in the following way: Han Shaogong (Atavism); Mo Yan (Ambivalent-Nostalgia); and Yu Hua (Deconstruction). As becomes evident through my analysis of selected texts, despite their very significant differences (personal, geographic, stylistic) all three writers come to oddly similar conclusions that are, in and of themselves, not dissimilar to the conclusion arrived at by Lu Xun's madman.

Dynasties of Demons: Cannibalism from Lu Xun to Yu Hua focuses on the issue of representations of the body in modern Chinese fiction. My interest concerns the relationship, or correspondence between "textual" bodies and the physical "realities" they are meant to represent, particularly where those representations involve the body as a discursive site for the intersection of state ideology and the individual. The relationship between the body and the state has been a question of profound significance for modern Chinese literati dating back to the late Qing, but it was Lu Xun who, with the publication of his short story "Kuangren riji" (Diary of a Madman), in 1918, initiated the literaty discourse on China's "apparent penchant for cannibalizing its own people. In the first chapter of my dissertation I discuss L u Xun's fiction by exploring two distinct, though not mutually exclusive issues: (1) his diagnosis of China's debilitating "spiritual illness," which he characterized as being cannibalistic; (2) his highly inventive, counter-intuitive narrative strategy for critiquing traditional Chinese culture without contributing to or stimulating his reader's prurient interests in violent spectacle. To my knowledge I am the first critic of modern Chinese literature to write about Lu Xun's erasure of the spectacle body. In Chapters II, III and IV, I discuss the writers Han Shaogong, Mo Yan, and Yu Hua, respectively, to illustrate that sixty years after Lu Xun's madman first "wrote" the prophetic words, chi ren A (eat people), a number of post-Mao writers took up their pens to announce that the human feast did not end with Confucianism; on the contrary, with the advent of Maoism the feasting began in earnest. Each of these post-Mao writers approaches the issue of China's "spiritual dysfunction" from quite different perspectives, which I have characterized in the following way: Han Shaogong (Atavism); Mo Yan (Ambivalent-Nostalgia); and Yu Hua (Deconstruction). As becomes evident through my analysis of selected texts, despite their very significant differences (personal, geographic, stylistic) all three writers come to oddly similar conclusions that are, in and of themselves, not dissimilar to the conclusion arrived at by Lu Xun's madman. / Arts, Faculty of / Asian Studies, Department of / Graduate