The subject in crisis in contemporary Chinese literature (Han Shaogong, Can Xue, Tashi Dawa, Ma Yuan)

Redefining the individual in society was a dominant issue in China since the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). This study explores the search for an independent subject(ivity) in post-Mao Chinese literature in the 1980s in fictional works by Han Shaogong (b. 1953), Can Xue (b. 1953), Tashi Dawa (b. 1959), and Ma Yuan (b. 1953). The investigation will also examine the influences of modern Western writers and thinkers--William Faulkner, the playwrights of the Theater of the Absurd, Jean-Paul Sartre, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Jorge Luis Borges--on these writers in their search.; The reconstruction of the subject has two components: (1) to free literature from politics; (2) to reinvent a human subject to replace the Maoist superhero of class struggle. By experimenting with new techniques and by looking into ignored themes such as the formation of human subjectivity, the hostilities prevalent in personal relationships, and literary self-reflexivity, post-Mao writers have formed an effective contestatory discourse and have put the restrictive Maoist literary Subject into crisis.; On the other hand, the establishment of a human subject with independent thinking has proven to be a formidable task. The coercive Maoist ideology and the absence of dissident discourses have disabled the individual from constructing and articulating an uncircumscribed sense of self. The literary characters attempts at self-creation are ruthlessly suppressed by the belligerent m/other symbolizing the hegemonic communist ideology. Thus, problems with language become a common motif in post-Mao literature. The crisis of the subject is therefore first and foremost the crisis of self-expression. The discreditation/evisceration/destruction of the Maoist hero has failed to produce a humanistic counter-model.; The disparity between the independent artistic self creating the text and voiceless, ineffectual self within the text demonstrates that the crisis is not fully resolved by these writers. For this reason, whether Chinese writers can reinvent a new human subject for a post-Mao China is yet to be seen.