Abstract
Grounded on the works of theorists such as Michel Foucault and Susan Sontag, I investigate in which ways the Chinese author Ma Yuan narrates the diseased bodies of marginal groups and their specific metaphors in the novella Fabrication. Moreover, I explore why Ma Yuan chose to represent the existential crisis and personal identity of Maqu villagers in Tibet and the link between this narrative and particular cultural fields in post-Mao China. Initially, I analyze the narrative strategies adopted in Fabrication and consider the narrative of this story as a form of orientalizing gaze. Then, I focus on both the physical body and social body of Maqu lepers from aspects of social interaction and private space within the framework of body politics. Furthermore, I explore the bodily experience of the characters to denote the seeking for identity (both historical and individual) within the collective historical trauma and dominant social ideology. Finally, I connect the novella with the cultural background of China in the 1980s to explore what embodied experiences of Chinese people in the post-Mao era are expressed.
Presenters
Yi HePhD Candidate, School of Humanities and Languages, University of New South Wales, New South Wales, Australia
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Body, Contemporary Chinese Avant-garde Fiction, Disease, Death, Identity
