The 'phenomenon' of Wang Shuo: A historico-literary consideration

This study analyzes and assesses the "Wang Shuo phenomenon," placing it in historico-literary perspective. In the late 1980s, he became the most popular and most controversial writer in China, leading to three waves of debates respectively cresting in 1989, 1993, and 1995 among literary critics. The debates expanded to include an ever-widening circle of intellectuals and readers, and eventually were joined by the government, itself.;The study begins with an overview of his life, career, and the controversy that surrounded him. The debates as they developed in literary circles are then discussed and analyzed in terms of the fundamental issues involved. It becomes clear that the central underlying points at issue revolved around different conceptions of the function of literature in society, the role and responsibility of the writer, and the status, authority and purpose of the intelligentsia in a China undergoing profound economic and social transformations.;The study then turns to an analysis of Wang Shuo's fiction, focusing on the aspects that led to the ascendancy of his "phenomenon." The three most important factors that thrust him onto the center stage are his characters, his central theme, and the genius of his language. In terms of characters, he promoted and celebrated the antihero for the first time in modern Chinese literature. His central theme is one of anti-control or, in positive terms, maximizing personal choice and personal responsibility. And his unique rendering of The tiaokan, sustained by an array of rhetorical devices, sharpens the pungency of his message.;The final section of the study places the Wang Shuo phenomenon in the context of the development of modern Chinese literature. It becomes clear that his theme, characters and rhetoric both heralded and contributed to a fundamental shift---from the promotion of the preeminent position of the collectivity in the modern Chinese literary tradition, to the legitimization of the individual and individual free will in contemporary literature. And it is also because of these attributes that he became both popular and controversial, for his writing constitutes a frontal assault on any controls exercised in the name of collective norms.