Memory - tradition - history: Ties to the past in modern Chinese fiction (Lu Xun, Shi Zhecun, Shen Congwen, Mo Yan, Wang Anyi)

This dissertation is concerned with aspects of tradition and the past that carry over into modern literature, specifically fiction. I approach this as a question of translation, that is of converting one or more aspects of tradition into modernity, with an eye for the traditional residues. In general, I have borrowed Naoki Sakai's theory of cofiguration, that process through which the act of translation from one language to another (conceived of as non-intersecting totalities) serves to reify their separateness even as the translation moves between the two. I use cofiguration to argue that pre-communist writers identified themselves in what was not part of a discrete set of cultural practices they labeled traditional, but nevertheless could not avoid re-invoking various pasts and traditions to a greater or lesser extent. With the intrusion of the Maoist State into all aspects of culture and literature, however, a more complete split with tradition was enabled and effected. In the post-Mao period, though, attempts to reconnect to a pre-communist past or tradition were mounted, but, because of the break established during the Maoist period, they were unevenly successful.; The wide temporal frame for my study is matched with precise selection of texts each with its own specific focus. Each of the authors I examine display a unique variety of past or tradition in their writings, and in the individual discussions, I attempt to allow those complexities to come to light. I begin with Lu Xun's "Butian" and Shi Zhecun's "Shi Xiu" each of which is a parody of a traditional text. I then move on to examine the persistence of a traditional poetic lyricism in Shen Congwen's pastoral fiction and compare this to similar techniques employed by Xungen writers from the 1980s. Next is a study of Maoist fiction and the ways it attempts to cut off tradition. I then look at memory in Mo Yan's Honggaoliang jiazu and how it leaps over the intervening years to reconnect with a pre-communist past. Finally I examine Wang Anyi's 1996 novel Chnaghenge weaving all of these aspects into a unified reading of the past through literature.