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LITERARY BODIES and PRIVATE SELVES in the WORKS of the CHINESE AVANT-GARDE WOMEN WRITERS by BRYNA MEREDITH

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LITERARY BODIES and PRIVATE SELVES in the WORKS of the CHINESE AVANT-GARDE WOMEN WRITERS by BRYNA MEREDITH THIS IS NOT A WOMAN: LITERARY BODIES AND PRIVATE SELVES IN THE WORKS OF THE CHINESE AVANT-GARDE WOMEN WRITERS by BRYNA MEREDITH TUFT A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2012 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Bryna Meredith Tuft Title: This Is Not a Woman: Literary Bodies and Private Selves in the Works of the Chinese Avant-Garde Women Writers This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures by: Dr. Tze-lan Sang Chair Dr. Maram Epstein Member Dr. Alison Groppe Member Dr. Bryna Goodman Outside Member and Kimberly Andrews Espy Vice President for Research & Innovation/Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded December 2012 ii © 2012 Bryna Meredith Tuft iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Bryna Meredith Tuft Doctor of Philosophy Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures December 2012 Title: This Is Not a Woman: Literary Bodies and Private Selves in the Works of the Chinese Avant-Garde Women Writers During the period of economic expansion and openness to personal expression and individuality following Deng Xiaoping’s reforms, the Chinese avant-garde women writers engaged in a project of resistance to the traditionally appropriated use of the female body, image, and voice. This resistance can be seen in the ways they consciously construct a private space in their fiction. In this dissertation, I argue that this space is created by presenting alternative forms of female sexuality, in contrast to the heterosexual wife and mother, and by adding details of their own personal histories in their writing. Key to this argument is the Chinese concept of si (privacy) and how the female avant-garde writers turn its traditionally negative associations into a positive tool for writing the self. While male appropriations of images of the female body for political or state-authored purposes are not new to the contemporary period or even the twentieth century, the female avant-garde writers are particularly conscious of the ways in which their bodies are not their own. Moreover, contemporary criticism that labels the works of the female avant-garde writers as self-exposing, titillating, and trite overlooks the difference between authorial intent and commercial or political appropriation, which has led to a profound misunderstanding of these works. In addition, it has also led to a iv conflation of the female avant-garde writers’ works with those of the later body writers. Therefore the purpose of this dissertation is to provide a closer look at the concept of si- privacy and how it intersects with various forms of self-writing, and how it is used as a narrative strategy by three contemporary female authors, Xu Kun, Lin Bai, and Hai Nan. Specifically, I consider the similarities and differences in the ways that these authors create and orient themselves in both their memoirs and their self-referential fiction. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Bryna Meredith Tuft GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene University of Colorado, Boulder DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, Modern Chinese Literature, 2012, University of Oregon Master of Arts, Modern Chinese Literature, 2005, University of Colorado at Boulder Bachelor of Arts, Chinese, U.S. History, Asian Studies, 2001, University of Colorado at Boulder AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature Women’s and Gender Studies PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Lead Instructor, University of Oregon, “A Chinese Cultural Odyssey,” Summer 2007,2008, 2009, 2010 Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon, Chinese language and literature, 2006-2011 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Foreign Language and Area Studies Summer Language Fellowship, 2011 Foreign Language and Area Studies Dissertation Research Fellowship, 2009-2010 Center for the Study of Women in Society Dissertation Research Grant, 2009- 2010 Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures Graduate School Award, University of Oregon, 2009 East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department Fellowship, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 vi PUBLICATIONS: Translator, "Why the Salesman Went Missing" (推销员为什么失踪), by Wang Shou 王手. In, Best Chinese Short Stories 2009-2010 published by MerwinAsia (Portland, Me) (forthcoming). Translator, “The Time of Cat’s Passion” (猫的激情时代), by Lin Bai 林白. In Renditions, published by The Research Center for Translation, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, (planned, Spring 2013). vii ACKNOWLDGEMENTS I thank Professor Tze-lan Sang and Professor Maram Epstein for their continuing support and encouragement. I also thank the Center for the Study of Women in Society at the University of Oregon for a research dissertation research grant, as well as the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Oregon for a Foreign Language and Area Studies Grant, both of which provided the opportunity to continue to research and work on this project. I additionally thank Jiang Hongyan and Lin Danya for allowing me to take part in the Ninth and Tenth International Symposiums on Chinese Women’s Literature held in China, and the opportunity to interact with other scholars and learn additional perspectives on this topic. Finally, I thank Leah Foy and the faculty and staff of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, as well as the Women’s and Gender Studies Department and the University of Oregon for the opportunity to pursue this degree and their help in bringing it to fruition. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 Terminology.................................................................................................................. 27 Structure........................................................................................................................ 28 Notes ............................................................................................................................. 32 II. WRITING THE PRIVATE BODY........................................................................... 35 “Private Writing” and Autobiography .......................................................................... 36 “Private Writing” and “Individualized Writing” .......................................................... 47 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 52 Notes ............................................................................................................................. 59 III. THE PUBLIC-ATION OF THE PRIVATE BODY................................................ 62 Li Xiaojiang and Dai Jinhua’s “Corporeal” Feminisms ............................................... 69 The Avant-Garde Writers: Reclaiming the Self and Mediating Consumption............. 74 Conclusion: The Chi Li Phenomenon and the Trap of Publication.............................. 85 Notes ............................................................................................................................. 88 IV. SELF-ISH WRITING: MEDIATING HISTORY, THEORY, AND THE FEMALE BODY IN THE WORKS OF XU KUN.................................................. 92 Mediating Patriarchal Culture and Women’s Writing: Xu Kun’s Notes on My Life.... 93 Self-Writing and the Theoretical Body: The Twenty-Two Nights of Spring............... 100 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 118 Notes ........................................................................................................................... 119 ix Chapter Page V. SELF-ISH WOMEN: INDIVIDUALIZED WRITING AND PRIVACY IN THE WORKS OF LIN BAI .................................................................................................... 122 The Gold of Previous Incarnations: Notes from My Life ........................................... 123 One Person’s War....................................................................................................... 131 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 153 Notes ........................................................................................................................... 155 VI. SELF-ISH PASSION: HAI NAN’S A DISSOLUTE LIFE: NOTES FROM MY LIFE AND MY LOVERS ................................................................................................ 160 A Dissolute Life: Notes from My Life ......................................................................... 161 My Lovers.................................................................................................................... 170 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 178 Notes ........................................................................................................................... 179 VII. CONCLUSION: PUBLIC EXPOSURE: THE BODY WRITERS AND WOMEN’S “SELF-WRITING”....................................................................................
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