A sojourn through madness in 'The Embroidered Shoes' of Can Xue

This thesis deals with four stories from The Embroidered Shoes, a collection of short stories by contemporary Chinese writer Can Xue. Both Can Xue personally, as well as her works, have been labeled "mad" by some critics in an effort to discredit the importance of her work and her position as writer and social critic. The critics who have disagreed with this "diagnosis" most often defend Can Xue's lucidity, and argue that her works are accurate descriptions of reality.;Through the theories of Michel Foucault, this thesis begins to question the label of madness, situating it as a category formed and maintained by discourse communities. Foucault further questions other dualistic categories that have been, in conventional discourse, fixed as permanent and contrary oppositions, such as Reason/Unreason, Rationality/Irrationality, Logic/Illogic.;Can Xue's stories likewise raise these same issues, playing with the lines between Madness/Reason, Rationality/Irrationality, Reality/Dreams. The importance of her work is revealed not for their lucidity or realism, but because they question the nature of-conventional discourse and give "true voice" to irrationality.