Continuity and discontinuity: The fiction of Mo Yan (China)

A self-educated peasant who selected the nom de plume Mo Yan, meaning “do not speak,” has become one of the most outspoken and prominent contemporary Chinese novelists. The author of nine novels and a large corpus of novellas and short stories, Mo Yan has written on a wide range of subject matters.; Containing four chapters and a conclusion, this dissertation examines several important themes found in Mo Yan's fictional creation within the framework of his continuity with and innovation of the May Fourth literary tradition represented by Lu Xun. Chapter one opens with a general picture of the literary situation of China, that of the Mao and post-Mao eras in particular, followed by Mo Yan's biographical introduction, serving as a context for his emergence as a fiction writer at that specific period of time. Chapter two discusses Mo Yan's representation and reconstruction of history, analyzing how the materialistic conception of a progressing history is challenged, and how the author's perception of history changes between his two major historical novels. Chapter three reveals Mo Yan's paradoxical nostalgia toward his hometown—Northeast Gaomi Township of Shandong province, discovering the similarities and differences between Mo Yan and Lu Xun in terms of their criticism of intellectuals, especially those who return to their old home from the city, and examining how the author turns his hometown into a conceptual existence, a timeless and boundless stage on which he is free to perform. Chapter four explores Mo Yan's writing strategy of satire, which displays his condemnation of social/political/cultural maladies and human weaknesses with a postmodern playfulness, and shows how he turns one of his novels, The Republic of Wine, into a political allegory.; In short, this dissertation seeks to discover Mo Yan's imagination, innovation, mission, and passion. It hopes to contribute to the field of criticism on Chinese literature a new image of Mo Yan: at once a successor and developer of the May Fourth literary legacy embodied by Lu Xun.