Redemption from trauma and desire: literature by overseas students as self-portraiture exemplified by Guo Songfen and Li Yongping

Abstract

Taiwan's liuxuesheng wenixue (literature by overseas students) has long been regarded as an integral part of modernist literature and its practioners are often criticized for being too self-absorbed in their own personal matters. Consequently, the evolution of this type of literature is little studied. However, after authors like Yu Lihua and Bai Xi-anyong coined the image of rootless Chinese students through their fictional works, this genre of literature has undergone great change and exhibited a rich diversity. This paper reviews the implications of the term 'liuxuesheng wenxue', redressing the reception of this body of texts as self-indulgent and rootless. The paper first provides an overview of the emergence and development of this type of literature. It then focuses on the works by Guo Songfen and Li Yongping, demonstrating how the concerns for personal matters in their writing can be seen as self-portraiture in which sociopolitical issues are not excluded but lyrically understated and highly aestheticized. By so doing, both authors elevate the earlier soppy literature by overseas students to a new level, appropriating it as a means to illustrate their notions of literature as an art form offering redemption from historical trauma and personal desire. In return, the thematic diversity and stylistic richness of Guo’s and Li’s works urge us to rethink the limits of literature by overseas students as a period term.