Desperation&Resistance: Analysis On The Insanity Image Of Chinese Contemporary Literature

Under the new historical context from the late19thcentury to the early20th,"insanity" had been gradually divorced from a disease as a fact but coming into theresearch field of ideologists and litterateurs, expanding a broad domain for theanalysis on human psychology and spirit and the research on human culture andcivilization. After entering into the creation field of litterateurs,"insanity" had madecontributions to creating literary image full of variety, due to the complicatedsignificances it contained.On the basis of absorbing the cultural connotation and aesthetic value of the imagesof insanity in ancient Chinese literatures, by drawing lessons from the significance ofinsanity from the perspective of sociology of culture made by western ideologists, thecontemporary literatures regarded insanity as a kind of product of civilization, whichwas both located on the margin opposite to rationality, but also sharing countless tieswith the net of rationality consist of culture, religion, taboo, ethics and morals andpolitical rights."Insanity" was applied in the creation of modern literature as a mark;litterateurs had expressed their deep concerns about reality and humanity with thehelp of various methods of artistic expression, by virtue of their sensitive perception,misanthropic feelings and social conscience and responsibility of caring for the fate ofthe nation: new and old cultures during the period of social transformation; impactsand influences exerted by the institution on individuals; people’s split personality andanxiety under the situation of regulation and compression in modern society;liberation and value construction of individuals, especially the women."Insanity" hadbecome a unique window for us to observe and reflect the world and humanity.The "insanity" images in contemporary literatures boasted their abundant culturalsignificances. The characters of insanity, as the resolute repudiators of traditionalliteratures, required to liberate their personal rights and freedoms from all theconstraints of autarchy culture and traditional rationality, in order to establish theirindependent personal images and rebuild their self-worth. Consequently, the shaping-up of insanity images had been brought into the ideological trend ofenlightenment literature in contemporary literatures. Besides, the "insanity" imagewas also a huge metaphor of the unbalanced inherent mechanism of culture andcivilization: it was the metaphor of the persecution and compression exerted by theautarchy system and decadent culture on individual lives; of the loafing of self spiritaround the wasteland; of the depression and slaughter of women’s desires, freedomsand creations by the male-dominated culture; and of the resistance of people as theexiled objects who died for it by all manner of means. It both pointed to the socialinstitution and the traditional Chinese culture, as well as people’s spiritualpredicament and ultimate pursuit.The insanity images featured unique aesthetic value, too. Above all, thecharacteristics of the insanity image, such as disordered speeches, vulgar behaviorsand languages, confused thinking logics, and gloomy living environments, wereelaborated on, even exaggerated, to put the "insanity" in the environment wherereality, humanity and rationality were relatively morbid, even smeared extremely,aiming at demonstrating the unique aesthetic characteristic of ugliness. In addition,the "insanity" image also featured a strong color of tragedy. From the perspective ofits causes, it was an outcome of the morbid culture and civilization; from theperspective of the results, its incurability had been expressed. To some extent, thetragic destiny of insanity images had suggested the tragic endings of the historicaldestiny of Chinese society, era and intellectuals during the early20thcentury.The "insanity" images had enriched the image gallery of modern literatures due toits multiple significances and richness. As a kind of narration mode of diseaseliterature, it had provided the Chinese literary research with a tentatively new visionand a window to understand the modern society and culture; and accumulatedabundant culture and aesthetic resources for shaping up "insanity" images incontemporary literatures.