A Study of the Cultural Revolution testimony in Yu-Hua's Novels

• Main Authors: Tzu-Wei Kuo, 郭子維
• Other Authors: Wen-Wei Shiu
• Format: Others
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/e775ee

碩士 === 國立東華大學 === 華文文學系 === 105 === Scholars in the past argue that Yu-Hua explores the theme of writing of the Cultural Revolution only in his works like “1986”, To Live, Chronicle of a Blood Merchant, and Brothers. However, lots of Yu-Hua avant-garde literature unclearly related to Cultural Revolution can all be viewed as the writing of the Cultural Revolution. From his book called China in Ten Words, we know that Yu-Hua’s memory mainly centers on Cultural Revolution. Also, his childhood filled with Cultural Revolution memory makes him possess severe trauma in his life. Using Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History as my research reference, this thesis aims to analyze Yu-Hua as a witness of Cultural Revolution and further claims that Yu-Hua’s violent writing and writing of desires in his book are the means to present Cultural Revolution and fear out of his memory. Moreover, through violent writing and writing of desire, Yu-Hua carefully illustrates the sense of crisis caused by collective amnesia. Writing of desires shows that because people’s desire is being suppressed during Cultural Revolution, their state of mind is problematically twisted. After Cultural Revolution, people lose their humanity for the sake of pursuing money. People cannot learn from Cultural Revolution because they have already lost their memory about Cultural Revolution. Nowadays, after Cultural Revolution, we can see that Cultural Revolution has not yet disappeared. Yu-Hua’s literary works recall the past of Cultural Revolution, refuse to neglect the negative impact that Cultural Revolution brings, and warn that today a kind of a modern from of Cultural Revolution still exists in the society.