루쉰의 「광인일기」와 하진의 『광인』에 나타난 민족적 알레고리와 상호텍스트성

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the national allegory and intertextuality in “Diary of a Madman” by Lu Xun and The Crazed by Ha Jin. The paper is based on Fredric Jameson’s theory that, unlike first world literature, third world literature frequently takes the form of a national allegory. Jameson uses the Chinese novelist Lu Xun as an illustration of national allegory to support his theory. The first person narrator of “Diary of a Madman” by Lu Xun uses cannibalism as a metaphor to disclose the oppressive and corrupt nature of Chinese feudal society and Confucian culture. Ha Jin’s The Crazed is comparable to Lu Xun’s work in that both authors use deranged protagonists to disclose profound insights about the plight of intellectuals as ethnic-national spokespersons. The insanity of main characters in the works of Lu Xun and Ha Jin enables them to disclose the truth about their respective societies. In addition, Ha Jin’s The Crazed is set in the post-Mao era and depicts the communist state’s exploitation, corruption, and cruelty. This work evokes Lu Xun’s celebrated national allegory, “A Diary of a Madman.” Similar to Lu Xun, Ha Jin uses a primary character, Professor Yang, who suffers a stroke and subsequently becomes delusional and insane, as a national allegory to illustrate China’s failure of historical retrospection. Ha Jin uses his narrator, Jian, who goes insane at the end of the novel, as well as Professor Yang, to criticize modern China as being comparable to Lu Xun’s time. In order to disclose a national allegory, Ha Jin uses the same imagery as “iron house” or “cannibalism,” which were used by Lu Xun to depict China to describe China.