From a post-structuralist perspective, this dissertation investigates the construction of cultural identity in the light of framing. Identity is discussed as an ergon (work of art) produced by its parergon (frame). The paradox of parergonality lies in the double-bind of solidity/permeability of the frame. A close examination will show that the frame does not make a borderline but is itself made of borderline cases....[ Read more ]

From a post-structuralist perspective, this dissertation investigates the construction of cultural identity in the light of framing. Identity is discussed as an ergon (work of art) produced by its parergon (frame). The paradox of parergonality lies in the double-bind of solidity/permeability of the frame. A close examination will show that the frame does not make a borderline but is itself made of borderline cases.

This research demonstrates the ways discursive framing of identity works in modern poetry of post-colonial Taiwan. The scope covers three historical moments selected between the 1970s and the 1990s during which identity issues received much critical attention in the literary milieu. In each moment, identity frames are regulated by the shifts in power balances both globally and locally.

Taking into consideration the poetry, practical criticism and literary historiography of the selected periods, I circumscribe the discussion within the etymological roots of shih (poetry): the land, the foot and speech/word. From them has emerged the Chinese traditional poetics Shih-yen-chih, a formidable discursive frame, within which Chinese classical poetry has developed and with which modem poets must wrestle in their identity discourse. Starting from this poetic tenet, I have ventured into two major paths of identity construction: indigenization and hybridization, as well as their related problematics.

Indigenization projects operate by a narrowing and hardening of the frame. Following the shifts of discourses from nationalism to localism, boundaries are re-drawn when identities are re-located. These essentialist identity claims are grounded on a place-based consciousness with an oppositional imagination of the self and the other. When indigenization works to install differences in a pedagogical direction by rescuing histories and recovering traditions, Yang Mu's texts offer performative possibilities in the third space, unravelling monolithic narratives from an allegorical distance. In-between Yang Mu's texts and the Yang Mu discourse is an interesting site of contradictions. While contesting claims of "a Hualienist" and "a Cultural hybrid" are taking root, the poet's stress on scepticism and signification questions the essentialist framing of identity by locality and shows the subversive power of hybridization in its resistance to a symbolic hybrid.

Given the complex political condition of Taiwan, identity framings often involve hyphenation, depending on the interdependencies between a centre and its margin. This dissertation will demonstrate that the framings of cultural identity are historical and open to negotiation; they display the paradox of parergonality .