Nihilist vision through literary subversion in mainland Chinese avant-garde fiction. Two cases: Nihilism of the indifferent as exemplified by Yu Hua and nihilism of the absurd as exemplified by Can Xue.

摘要

In this paper the writings of Yu Hua and Can Xue are discussed in light of their literary subversiveness, which is seen as closely related to a nihilist vision. Central to this vision is a persistent negativity, which is directed toward Chinese culture, particularly in their view of Chinese ethical and moral principles, which are seen as hypocritical, repressive and ultimately devoid of meaning. While similar opinions of Chinese culture and tradition have been voiced by other Chinese writers, such as those in the May Fourth period, in these two authors' writings, this negative view is pushed to the extreme. Like other members of the avant-garde group, instead of looking for models of replacement, as the May Fourth writers did from western civilization, no substitute model is presented by either Yu Hua or Can Xue. In the fictive worlds constructed by Yu Hua and Can Xue, humans are doomed to live in a pathetically dehumanized state, with misery and hopelessness as its primary features. For Yu Hua, indifference seems the only response his characters have toward their environment---a world forsaken by morals and ideals. Can Xue's characters struggle and stumble through lives saturated with absurd experiences and confusing encounters depriving them of meaning and identity. Like other avant-garde Chinese writers, Yu Hua and Can Xue are especially suspicious of the realist mode of writing. Their disdain for realism is evident in two aspects. First of all, the very nature of reality itself is subjected to an interrogation that leads to a metaphysical nihilism, which denies surety to the foundation of knowledge in regard to reality, history and time. Secondly, the writing process itself is foregrounded so that the narrative becomes a self-reflexive and indeterminate text. At its most extreme, their narratives are ultimately a bewildering vacuum that leaves the reader little to hang onto. The paper finally examines how the nihilist vision persists in Yu Hua's writings as a steady force, while in Can Xue, a highly poeticized voice helps to center her narrative with transcendental force, though never powerfully enough to generate real hope.