History·Freedom·Culture—The Study Of The Creation Theme In Wuhe's Works

Wuhe,as a special and slow-matured writer in Taiwan,has a legendary experience in terms of writing.He was born in 1950 s and stepped in literary world in 1970 s.As a budding writer,he surprisingly withdrew from society and lived in solitude in Tamsui in 1980 s before getting his reputation again in 1990 s.With limited numbers of works,Wuhe still managed to be highly valued by Dewei Wang who believed Wuhe the leading role of Taiwanese writers in the 21 st century.Based on novels of Wuhe,this thesis attempts to dig into his works and explore their creation themes.After a thorough reading of these works,this thesis finds three themes of Wuhe's novels,which are history,liberty and culture.Closely related to personal experiences of Wuhe himself,these themes are connected to each other in a linear way.In 1970 s when Taiwanese local literature started their debate,Wuhe began to show his talent in literature writing.Back then,he had a huge literature dream: to write family history.Represented by The Thin Incense,works written by Wuhe in the 70 s served as his initial attempts in family history writing.As soon as his family history writing plans break up,these works has become few representatives that focus on Chinese traditional culture.He didn't return back to literature until 1990 s when he reached his pen to culture for the second time and started to pay attention to folk religion and aborigine culture that suffered great damages.In 1979,after an incomplete study in college,Wuhe served in the army for two years.The suppression and constraint from the army has exerted great influence on him and indirectly lead to his solitude in Tamsui later.Obsessed with well-known world literature works,especially Russian literature and French literature that include displacement and hardship,and taking his own experiences into account,Wuhe constantly rethought about history,nation and politics.Works completed during the experiment stage is undoubtedly the expression of his speculation of history.He spent ten years in Tamsui to think about history,which affected him greatly and served as his creation basis against the system,suppression and standard.After 1990 s when the white terror finally saw its end,Taiwan has been more open and free.Under the influence of international Queer Movement,Taiwan started to appeal to Taiwanese queer.Wuhe,however,held different view,which contributed to his free writing style in works calling for the liberty of body,person and thought.Taking everything into consideration,this thesis is thus divided into three chapters.The first chapter discusses the history in Wuhe's works.Wuhe has a subtle connection with politics: not a part of it yet always staying around.Different from the mainstream discourse which interpreted history from the point of politics,Wuhe insisted on the view proposed by Croce that all history is contemporary history.Guided by this opinion,with the help of fieldwork,he eventually developed his own style of writing and weakened the authority of the mainstream discourse from various aspects.With the aid of The Rest Life and Investigation: Narration,this thesis explores the history in Wuhe's works by analyzing his writing style and how he weakened mainstream discourse of history.The second chapter probes into the liberty in Wuhe's works.As a constant theme running through his works,liberty,whether in terms of body,person or thought,is never sacrificed.This chapter declares how Wuhe purchased liberty from various aspects by analyzing his works.The third chapter digs into the culture in Wuhe's works.Sweeping around the world,modernization has not only changed our living environment,but also destroyed many ancient cultural traditions,which inevitably influenced people who live on the flat ground,letting aside aborigines and brought huge grief to Wuhe.Taking this as an entry point and with an analysis on how Wuhe criticized modernization and was distressed by the falling of culture,this chapter means to point out how much Wuhe cares about culture.Based on the thorough analysis in chapter one,two and three,the conclusion moves forward to clarify the features of Wuhe's works and its relations with Taiwanese literature.