A dream of red heroesmyth in chinese socialist realist fiction
Date
1992
Authors
Keefer, James Robinson
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
In the following thesis I examine the question of the function and meaning of myth in Chinese Socialist Realist fiction. Using the theoretical approach suggested by Katerina Clark in her seminal work, The Soviet Novel: History as Ritual, I analyze the text from three Chinese Socialist Realist novels (Hurricane, Tracks in the Snowy Forest, and Red Crag) to establish that Chinese Socialist Realist writers did, in fact, use a symbolic subtext to incorporate elements of official Chinese Communist Party mythology into the body of the their works.
Following the establishment of this fact, I go on to demonstrate how Chinese writers encoded Marxist-Leninist ideology into a symbolic vocabulary that was recognizable to the Chinese people. By analyzing the text from the aforementioned novels I demonstrate how Chinese writers manipulated the informing values of traditional Chinese heroes to validate the elite status of the new Socialist Realist hero.
Once again, drawing on Clark's work, I use textual analysis to show that, as with its Soviet antecedents, Chinese Socialist Realist fiction conforms to a "master plot" that recapitulates the resolution of the "spontaneity/consciousness" dialectic. Using the myth of the hero's journey as a general framework Socialist Realist writers drew on their own experiences of the revolution to particularize the stages of historical development outlined by Marxist-Leninist ideology.
In the case of Chinese Socialist Realist fiction, it must be borne in mind that Socialist Realist literary doctrine was a Soviet invention, thus Chinese writers were called upon not only to transcode what was, essentially, an alien ideology, but to sinify it as well, i.e., to encode it into a symbolic vocabulary both recognizable and believable to the Chinese people. Beginning with a textual analysis of Zhou Libo's novel Hurricane I demonstrate how Chinese Socialist Realist writers accomplished this task by manipulating the informing scheme of traditional popular heroes (e.g., Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, and Song Jiang) so that they came to embody the values of the new Maoist-Leninist social order.
Through a textual analysis of the three above named novels it becomes apparent that the symbolic or mythic subtext, while subordinate to the principal mimetic text, was critical to articulating the values that validated the Chinese Communist Party's world view, as well as legitimizing its exercise of authority. For this reason in the following thesis I have argued that Chinese Socialist Realist fiction played an extremely important role in the formation of modern Chinese culture.
Description
Keywords
UN SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions