Modern Chinese literature in the postcolonial diaspora.

摘要

This dissertation seeks to inquire into the literary developments that straddle the division of China in the late 1940s. The first chapter outlines the methodological approaches elucidated more fully in subsequent chapters and attempts to draw links between Chinese literature written in the diaspora and literary trends in different spheres of the globe.; Chapter two provides the socio-political background for Nationalist literary policy, first developed in Chongqing during World-War Two and later put into practice in Taiwan. In addition to offering a reading of one novel that typifies the dominant aesthetic of the 1950s, this chapter discusses the uneasy relationship between the mainland Chinese who had recently fled to Taiwan and the Taiwanese intellectuals who had grown up under the colonizing umbrella of Japan.; Chapter three focuses on some of the themes that gain currency in Taiwan with the publication there of Zhang Ailing's work. It also analyzes the contributions of Xia Ji'an (T. A. Hsia), an editor as well as a literary critic, in his promotion of Chinese literature outside the mainland. Zhang's appropriation of Freudian notions applied as a cultural critique and Xia's emphasis on realism were both influential on the generation to follow.; Chapter four is a close reading of Bai Xianyong's "Wandering in the Garden, Waking from a Dream." Bai is fascinated with notions of sexuality and feminity, but the thesis of this chapter suggests that he is in fact most interested in the narration of the nation. This sort of national allegory written on the political margins is also present in Wang Wenxing's Family Metamorphosis, the subject of chapter five. However, Wang chooses different textual solutions to a similar historical problem, for he seeks to further extend his marginality.; Finally, Chapter six briefly attempts to draw some conclusions from this inquiry by both reexamining the works in conjunction with each other and by suggesting what the possibilities for further inquiry might be.