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A thematic study of Lu Xun’s prose poetry collection Wild grass

University of British Columbia

This thesis is a comprehensive thematic study of the unique prose poetry collection Wild Grass by the famous modern Chinese writer Lu Xun. It provides a general survey of previous Wild Grass studies both in China and abroad in the past 70 years in Chapter 1. The survey clarifies the achievements and defects of those studies, and finds that they are still insufficient and can and should be further expanded. By employing a comprehensive methodology, including close reading, rhetorical analysis, intertextual interpretation, and some standard psychoanalytic insights, the thesis explores the themes of Wild Grass on three different levels. In Chapter 2, on the historical level, the thesis reveals the theme of social and political criticism of the dark reality of mid- 19208 China. In Chapter 3, some Wild Grass poems are interpreted on the philosophical level to show the theme of Lu Xun's meditations on the ego, will to life, and the meaning of human existence. In Chapter 4, the thesis examines some Wild Grass poems on the emotional level to display Lu Xun's dilemma of love and moral responsibilities at a crucial juncture of his life when he contemplated deserting his old-style wife and accepting a young lady's love. Some poems are informed by a strong awareness of repentance, which is essentially an embodiment of Lu Xun's sense of morality and responsibility. In its conclusion, the thesis summarizes the intellectual and artistic values of Wild Grass, deeming it a magnificent book marking a creative peak in Lu Xun's career and an achievement in modern Chinese literature of the twentieth century. Lu Xun's spirit of struggle, awareness of repentance, and subjective emotion and lyricism that are incorporated in Wild Grass have become an important legacy for Chinese literature and the Chinese people. The symbolic and surrealistic features, the expressionistic characterization, the structure of the logical dilemma, and elegant language make Wild Grass a great modern masterpiece.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-06-24

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/9560

Asian Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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