The sublime subject of history: Aesthetics and politics in twentieth-century China

Political and ideological analysis of Chinese literary texts tends towards a separation of the aesthetic from the political. Literary texts are either privileged for their "intrinsic" aesthetic values, as in the case of traditional literature; or dismissed as a crude ideological propaganda, as in the case of Communist literature. This dissertation reconsiders the mutual articulation between the political and the aesthetic in literary as well as aesthetic writings in modern China. It argues that since its initial reception at the turn of the century the Western concept of the aesthetic has occupied a prominent place in various ideological discourses in modern China, and has been appropriated by writers and intellectuals to address ethical, social and political issues. The dissertation demonstrates the ways in which ideology and politics project an aesthetic dimension. It inquires into how politics--whether that of fashioning a political subject of the modern nation-state in the May Fourth era or constructing the subject of the Communist state in Mao's reign, whether that of sustaining a moral self in the midst of ideological crisis or of debunking the totalizing representations of the grand narrative of revolution--is aestheticized. Aesthetic discourse engages human sensation, perception, feelings, and deals with images, representation, myths and above all theories about the beautiful and the sublime. The study proves that the interpretation of literary texts cannot be divorced from the dominant aesthetic modes in a culture, and that a close look at the relationship between the aesthetic and political reveals that modern Chinese literary and aesthetic practices are implicated in ideological and political concerns and projects.