Politics of sexuality: The fiction of Zhang Xianliang, Mo Yan and Wang Anyi

This dissertation is a study of sexuality in the works of three novelists who have risen to prominence in post-Mao China: Zhang Xianliang, Mo Yan and Wang Anyi. The topic is significant, for this is the first time that Chinese writers have enjoyed just enough freedom to explore in literature ideas and fantasies about human sexuality--a forbidden area in the previous three decades. The study will show how sexuality in political, cultural and personal experience has been represented in their works.;The Introduction is a conspectus of the social and literary backgrounds of post-Mao China and the surge of writers' interest in amatory themes.;Chapter One deals with Zhang Xianliang, not only because he belongs to an older generation of writers, but more particularly because he is the first writer to create a nationwide sensation by his writing on sexual matters. Central to our explication is his interweaving of sexuality and politics.;Chapter Two examines Mo Yan's works. His staple concern is with sexuality as a gift of nature and as a cause of social problems. Mo Yan's attitude towards human sexuality varies with the spatio-temporal contexts of his stories. Our reading shows that in general he takes a more positive view of sexuality in olden times. In the present, sexuality is less a salutary experience than an insolvable problem.;Chapter Three discusses Wang Anyi's works, introducing a feminine perspective on the subject. Wang's works are known not only for her women-centered attitude but for her individualism. For her heroines, love and sex are not only agencies for self-fulfillment but also areas in which they question and reverse gender roles. However, the heroines' understanding of femininity, self-realization and gender roles is conventional in nature, and their habit for self-love also limits their explorations into uncharted territories of feminism.