This thesis is a comprehensive thematic study of the unique prose poetry collection
Wild Grass by the famous modern Chinese writer Lu Xun. It provides a general survey of
previous Wild Grass studies both in China and abroad in the past 70 years in Chapter 1. The
survey clarifies the achievements and defects of those studies, and finds that they are still
insufficient and can and should be further expanded.
By employing a comprehensive methodology, including close reading, rhetorical
analysis, intertextual interpretation, and some standard psychoanalytic insights, the thesis
explores the themes of Wild Grass on three different levels. In Chapter 2, on the historical
level, the thesis reveals the theme of social and political criticism of the dark reality of mid-
19208 China. In Chapter 3, some Wild Grass poems are interpreted on the philosophical
level to show the theme of Lu Xun's meditations on the ego, will to life, and the meaning of
human existence. In Chapter 4, the thesis examines some Wild Grass poems on the
emotional level to display Lu Xun's dilemma of love and moral responsibilities at a crucial
juncture of his life when he contemplated deserting his old-style wife and accepting a young
lady's love. Some poems are informed by a strong awareness of repentance, which is
essentially an embodiment of Lu Xun's sense of morality and responsibility.
In its conclusion, the thesis summarizes the intellectual and artistic values of Wild
Grass, deeming it a magnificent book marking a creative peak in Lu Xun's career and an
achievement in modern Chinese literature of the twentieth century. Lu Xun's spirit of
struggle, awareness of repentance, and subjective emotion and lyricism that are incorporated
in Wild Grass have become an important legacy for Chinese literature and the Chinese
people. The symbolic and surrealistic features, the expressionistic characterization, the
structure of the logical dilemma, and elegant language make Wild Grass a great modern
masterpiece.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/9560 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Li, Tianming |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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