Reality and symbols: Identity quest of characters in Xiao Hong's works

Xiao Hong is a Chinese writer of the 1930s and 1940s. Her fate, especially her romance, has aroused much interest among critics. "Romance", however, is certainly not her whole life. This dissertation will try to demonstrate her significance in twentieth-century Chinese literature.;The quest for and choice of various identities and positions in Xiao's works are embodied in the ups and downs of her life. These issues have penetrated her literary works in different ways, thus affecting both the contents and styles of her works. Beginning with the angle of "identity quest", this dissertation will analyze four representative works by Xiao, namely Shangshi Jie (Market Street), Sheng Si Chang (The Field of Life and Death), Hulanhe Zhuan (Tales of Hulan River) and Ma Bole , in order to demonstrate the implications of "identity quest" in Xiao's works.;As for methodology, this dissertation will try to deploy a combination of various critical methods---narratology, feminism, neohistoricism, psychoanalysis, and linguistic stylistics---under the rubric of "identity quest". Furthermore, this dissertation will make reference to history or "the real" by scrutinizing the relationships between literary works and personal experiences, the eternal society, the cultural milieu, as well as the status of literature and art. How Xiao articulates her views on "identities" in a "symbolic"("rhetorical devices" and "implied meaning") manner will also be investigated in the process.;This dissertation will be divided into seven chapters. The introduction in Chapter One will survey previous studies of Xiao. The purpose and methods of this study will also be discussed. Chapter Two will be an overview of the relations between the process of Xiao's "identity quest" and her literary endeavors. From Chapter Three to Chapter Six, specific works will be analyzed and there will be an explication of three relatively important identities of Xiao, which are "self", "female", and "writer". More specifically, Chapter Three will take Shangshi Jie as an example to study the confusion of characters vis-a-vis "self positioning". Chapter Four will reveal how Xiao designates different sexual roles to various "characters" and affirms the "female positions". And Chapter Five will point out the disillusion of "female prospects" as revealed in the tragic end of the "young child-bride" in Hulanhe Zhuan. In Chapter Six, character portrayals and relevant narrative strategies in Ma Bole will be examined so as to manifest that Xiao has deviated from the demand of "anti-Japanese resistance literature" and has affirmed the choice of positioning herself as a "non-mainstream writer". Chapter Seven, the last chapter, will echo and combine the analysis of the previous chapters from the perspective of Xiao's overall artistic flow of literary works, and will conclude that both in her "life" or in her "works". Xiao's "position" is and always identifies with that of the "weak". During the last days of her life, Xiao lives in seclusion in Hong Kong and becomes a truly "marginal writer". This choice aptly adheres to her beliefs and principles in terms of her quest for "identities" and "positions" throughout her entire life.