The tension of national allegory: the search for Chinese identity and modernity – an analysis of Chinese literature in the post-Mao era in the context of globalization
type: CreativeWork
description: This dissertation focuses on an analysis of Chinese literature in the post-Mao era in the context of globalization. It utilizes Fredric Jameson's third-world cultural theory, particularly his ideas relating to national allegory, and applies theoretical constructs, such as postmodernism (e.g the theories of Jean-Francois Lyotard), postcolonial theory (e.g Edward Said’s Orientalism), Julia Kristeva’s intertextuality, the carnival theory and the idea of polyphony put forward by M. M. Bakhin, the theories of Michel Foucault, Wilhelm Reich’s character analysis, and Sigmund Freud’s theories of psychoanalysis. The dissertation provides a focused textual analysis of a number of literary trends that emerged in contemporary China, namely, Scar literature, Misty poetry, Root-Seeking literature, Avant-garde literature and New Realism literature. It decodes a selection of representative works from each of these literary schools, and interprets the characteristics of the key literary groups of each period. By doing so, it attempts to enrich and develop the established western theories referred to above by means of an analytical rereading of the selected texts. The first aim of my analysis is to attain a measure of “historical depth”. For this purpose, as one example, Scar by Lu Xinhua (published in 1978) is reread intertextually with Benediction by Lu Xun (published in 1928), and with The Song of Youth by Yang Mo (published in 1958). The critical perspective adopted develops further both Julia Kristeva’s theory of intertextuality and M.M. Bakhin’s carnival configuration, as well as providing new insights into the “national allegory” theory of Fredric Jameson. Second, my analysis aims to achieve a “synchronal broadness”, as can be evidenced in the examination of Root-Seeking literature where an analogy is drawn between Bababa and Nununu by Han Shaogong. The analysis not only employs Fredric Jameson’s theories as reference, it also applies Kristeva’s feminism, theories from Michel …
abstract: This dissertation focuses on an analysis of Chinese literature in the post-Mao era in the context of globalization. It utilizes Fredric Jameson's third-world cultural theory, particularly his ideas relating to national allegory, and applies theoretical constructs, such as postmodernism (e.g the theories of Jean-Francois Lyotard), postcolonial theory (e.g Edward Said’s Orientalism), Julia Kristeva’s intertextuality, the carnival theory and the idea of polyphony put forward by M. M. Bakhin, the theories of Michel Foucault, Wilhelm Reich’s character analysis, and Sigmund Freud’s theories of psychoanalysis. The dissertation provides a focused textual analysis of a number of literary trends that emerged in contemporary China, namely, Scar literature, Misty poetry, Root-Seeking literature, Avant-garde literature and New Realism literature. It decodes a selection of representative works from each of these literary schools, and interprets the characteristics of the key literary groups of each period. By doing so, it attempts to enrich and develop the established western theories referred to above by means of an analytical rereading of the selected texts. The first aim of my analysis is to attain a measure of “historical depth”. For this purpose, as one example, Scar by Lu Xinhua (published in 1978) is reread intertextually with Benediction by Lu Xun (published in 1928), and with The Song of Youth by Yang Mo (published in 1958). The critical perspective adopted develops further both Julia Kristeva’s theory of intertextuality and M.M. Bakhin’s carnival configuration, as well as providing new insights into the “national allegory” theory of Fredric Jameson. Second, my analysis aims to achieve a “synchronal broadness”, as can be evidenced in the examination of Root-Seeking literature where an analogy is drawn between Bababa and Nununu by Han Shaogong. The analysis not only employs Fredric Jameson’s theories as reference, it also applies Kristeva’s feminism, theories from Michel …
author: Nie, Mao
license: https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstreams/f59ef2bc-f6da-4bad-9703-c9d9b404566d/download
date published: 2003
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:57:27Z
provider: University Waikato
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The University of Waikato