Masculinity troubled : the autobiographical fiction of Guo Moruo, Yu Dafu and Zhang Ziping

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. 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.

Date of Award	2014
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology