| Autobiographies of Chinese Writers in the Early Twentieth Century attempts to show a conflict of authorization behind the writing of autobiographies by Chinese writers. Chapters One and Two trace Chinese autobiographies from the time of Sima Qian up to the late Qing Dynasty. The remaining chapters focus on writers of the early twentieth century, including Guo Moruo, Lu Xun, Shen Congwen, and Hu Shi. The dissertation postulates two types of textual authorization, one "impressionistic," which is atemporal and gains its validity from reference to the hermetic codes of writing, and the other "circumstantial," which is characterized by reference to the phenomenal world and its power structures. Whereas the impressionistic authorization was rejected by modern writers, who tried to disassociate themselves from the traditional definition and meaning of the term "writer," the trappings of the impressionistic autobiography are insistent within their self-transmissions. Therefore, the attempts of the modern writers to validate themselves, as writers, and their texts through their association with the material world and its correlaries are fraught with images of betrayal and degradation. |
