“Feminine” Fear and Obsession A Discussion on Traumatic Memory

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中國現代文學
第二十二期
“Feminine” Fear and Obsession
─A Discussion on Traumatic Memory
and Historical Violence in Mo Yan’s Novels
Leung Mo-Ling Rebecca＊
Abstract
Examination of Mo Yan’s novels led to a realization that psychic trauma of varying degrees
is prevalent in his writings. In response to this, this paper begins by discussing historical violence
as an underlying cause of psychic trauma. Historical violence here refers specifically to the discourse
of violence emerged from Fascist aesthetics and manifested in the rhetorical expressions of Mao
Zedong during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. At that time, the discourse of violence
rose as a prominent, if not the only, form of historical discourse. Such dominance was found to
have long-lasting impacts on Mo Yan’s novels as well. Then, this paper adopts a psychoanalytic
approach to examine the distinguishing feminine features that characterize Mo Yan’s novels.
The constant association of feminine traits with consumption, excretion, and sex sheds light on
the writer’s unconscious fear and apprehension toward these impulses. His attempt to repress
the feminine elements is also evident by the implementation of another equally powerful symbolic
TAO
mechanism throughout his novels. In addition to the feminine imagery of consumption, excretion,
and sex, Mo Yan’s novels are filled with the rhetoric of masculinity, purity, and violence, all of
which are core to Fascist Aesthetics. This phenomenon indicates that the dominant historical
discourse in the past fails to fully represent the symbolic system of social order in the new period.
While Mo Yan is using the above-mentioned method to repair memory, he is also triggering the
historical trauma stemmed from the previous experience of violence and rejection. It actually
exhibits a distinctive emotional state in the new period literature.
Key words: Mo Yan, traumatic memory, historical violence, feminine, Fascist aesthetics
＊
Leung Mo-Ling Rebecca, Assistant Professor, Department of Chinese, Hang Seng Management College; Phd,
Department of Chinese Language and Literature, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.