The "afterlife" of lung disease : the image of lung disease in contemporary Chinese-language novels (1949-1990s) = 肺病的「死後生命」 : 當代中文小說中的肺病意象 (1949-1990s)

Abstract

The representation of lung diseases, prevalent in European and Chinese literature before the mid-twentieth century, decreased significantly in post-1949 China, to the extent that certain scholars claimed it had become extinct. However, this study suggests that despite the sharp decrease, lung disease narratives are still present in contemporary Chinese-language literary works. These narratives show unique patterns in constructing the image of lung disease and engage in a dialogue with the historical, political, cultural, and medical contexts between 1949 and the 1990s. By combining archival study and text analysis methodologically, this study aims to fill the gap in research on contemporary Chinese-language lung disease writings and introduce new perspectives for understanding contemporary Chinese-language literary studies.

The study argues that the decline in lung disease narratives in contemporary Chinese-language novels is a result of medical, political, aesthetic, cultural, and economic influences. Most examples of contemporary lung disease writings depict lung disease in a relatively marginal place compared to previous counterparts, such as 17th-19th century European literature, Ming-Qing works, and Republican novels. Through analyzing these examples with political and aesthetic clues, this study observes an interplay between them and Chinese contexts concerning both the public and private domains. The class reflection in contemporary novels is more diverse, embracing new characters of workers, peasants, and soldiers with lung diseases. However, these diverse class representations share similar traces of political interference. In terms of aesthetic expression, contemporary lung disease characters are no longer presented as ideal lovers but are marked with aesthetic disadvantages, making them losers or outsiders in love relationships. This study then examines Gao Xingjian’s Soul Mountain, a special text spotlighting lung disease, as a supplement to the spectrum of contemporary lung disease writing. It explores how his writing expresses politics in a different way from other contemporary texts through the layers of class, symptoms, and healing, and how it introduces new changes in aesthetic and love narratives. Gao’s unique position of standing between “China” and overseas while creating Soul Mountain may provide a clue to understanding his lung disease writings, which deviate from both prior European, Chinese, and contemporary mainland lung disease narratives.