title: Trauma and truth: representations of madness in Chinese literature.
abstract: With only a few exceptions, the literary theme of madness has long been a domain of Western cultural studies. Much of Western writing represents madness as an inquiry into the deepest recesses of the mind, while the comparatively scarce Chinese tradition is generally defined by madness as a voice of social truth. This paper looks at five works of twentieth-century Chinese fiction that draw on socio-somatic aspects of madness to reflect upon social truths, suggesting that the inner voice of subjectivity is perhaps not the only true voice of the self.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chinese, Translation & Linguistics, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, SAR, China. blinder@cityu.edu.hk
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Linder
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D003469:Culture; D004324:Drama; D049673:History, 20th Century; D008091:Literature / Q000266:history*; D001523:Mental Disorders; D014947:Wounds and Injuries