Subjectivity and Realism in Modern Chinese Fiction

Xiaoping Wang is distinguished professor of comparative literature at Tongji University.

• IntroductionPart I Hu Feng’s Notion of “Subjective Fighting Spirit”Chapter One Cultural Capital, Hegemony and the ZeitgeistChapter Two Intellectuals’ Politics and a Bourgeois SubjectivityPart II Subjectivity in Lu Ling’s FictionChapter ThreeSubjectivity in Loss: Disintegration of Traditional Family and Emergence of Desire Chapter Four Subjectivity in Search of: “Bildungsroman” of Modern Chinese IntellectualsChapter Five Subjectivity in Vain: A Fable of the Failure of Bourgeois Social Reforms Chapter SixIntellectuals in Predicament: Other StoriesPart III The People and the Class ConsciousnessChapter SevenPolitics of Recognition and Politics of StyleChapter EightSelf-Other Relationship and the Other as the PeopleChapter NineLu Ling’s Theory and His FictionConclusionIndexAbout the Author

Theoretically well-informed and methodologically rigorous, this outstanding study of the works of Hu Feng and Lu Ling incorporates the insights brought out by existing works, and departs from them by offering insightful, new interpretations through delving into the larger issues of cultural politics and ideologies during the radical revolutionary era of the 1930s and 1940s in modern China. This significant contribution substantially develops the present scholarship and will contribute significantly to the scholarship on modern Chinese literature and culture studies.