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<p> This dissertation examines
medical representations, or what I call “fiction medicine,” in post-1949
Chinese literature and film. It is not uncommon to evaluate whether medical
facts are scientifically portrayed in literary and cinematic works. Insightful
and reasonable as this method is, the interpretation of relevant descriptions
from a single medical perspective tends to exclude what may be labeled as
misrepresentations from scholarly attention. Therefore, without judging the
value of fiction medicine in accordance with scientific standards, this
dissertation analyzes how and why medical (mis)representations are formed in
the way they are shown, which allows me to unearth those factors, such as
politics, international relations, ideology, and the like, that exert
considerable influence on the construction of medical landscape in cultural
works. </p>
<p> By exploring the interaction between
representations and medicine under the Chinese revolutionary context, I argue that
during the socialist period (1949-78), while revolutionary concerns tightly
regulated the writing of fiction medicine to consolidate the Chinese Communist
Party (CCP)’s rule, the production of fiction medicine was not always
monolithic, containing tensions and even resistances against the prevailing
ideology. I also argue that, after 1978, although socialist fiction medicine
was deconstructed in many ways, some remnants of its legacies have kept
influencing contemporary literary and cinematic imaginations. Based on my main
arguments, I will further explore why some socialist legacies were preserved
and remained influential while others were abandoned as reminders of the past. I
suggest that this phenomenon was highly related to the shifting goals of the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the post-1978 political, ideological, and
economic reorientation.</p>
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| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/12721160 |
| Date | 28 July 2020 |
| Creators | Zihan Wang (9171503) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/FICTION_MEDICINE_AND_THE_COMMUNIST_REVOLUTION_IN_THE_PEOPLE_S_REPUBLIC_OF_CHINA/12721160 |
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