THESIS
2014
Abstract
This study explores the transition of the identity of literati in the 1920s by reviewing
the autobiographical fictions of Guo Moruo, Yu Dafu and Zhang Ziping, all of whom
belonged to the Creation Society. In that period, self-exploration was a popular topic of
literary creation for it was believed to serve iconoclastic purposes by arousing one’s own
agency against the patriarchal society. But a close examination of the self-referential texts by
the Creationists shows a different story. The selves are more submerged by social turmoil than
actively combating external forces tangibly or ideologically. Introspective and retrospective
fiction provides a means not only to record personal experience and emotions but also to
fabricate the self piece by piece and perform it act by act. I...[
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This study explores the transition of the identity of literati in the 1920s by reviewing
the autobiographical fictions of Guo Moruo, Yu Dafu and Zhang Ziping, all of whom
belonged to the Creation Society. In that period, self-exploration was a popular topic of
literary creation for it was believed to serve iconoclastic purposes by arousing one’s own
agency against the patriarchal society. But a close examination of the self-referential texts by
the Creationists shows a different story. The selves are more submerged by social turmoil than
actively combating external forces tangibly or ideologically. Introspective and retrospective
fiction provides a means not only to record personal experience and emotions but also to
fabricate the self piece by piece and perform it act by act. It is thus intriguing that the authors
chose to be self-fashioned as weak and failing modern writers. Negative and undesirable
qualities paradoxically made up the preferred elements in rendering their masculinity.
It is also notable that the Creationists, being off Chinese soil for around a decade,
forged their own version of modern literature. A remarkable amount of traditional literary
resources can be found in their autobiographical fiction alongside foreign cultural codes,
including references to Western romanticism and the Japanese I-novel. This indicates the
cultural and ideological legacies of the wenren identity from scholar-official to modern
vocational writer in their wen qualities, worldview, social role and status. Because of the
self-reflexive nature of these novels, the authors are able to contemplate the role of writing
through writing. In short, these texts reveal the process of the Creationists’ self-fashioning as
modern wenren with their ideal image.
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