Literary Consecration and Spiritual Naturalization: A Study on Ruth Weiss’ Writing of Lu Xun

Abstract

Among the many writings on Lu Xun, the book Lu Xun: A Chinese Writer for All Times (1985) by Ruth Weiss has its unique cultural value. As a biography of Lu Xun written by a naturalized Chinese who communicated with Lu Xun personally when he was alive, it provided useful clues for understanding the extensive and fruitful interactions between Lu Xun and the young foreign expats in China in the 1930s. Ruth Weiss was one of those foreigners who joined China for most of their lives, the rationales of her consistent writing of Lu Xun are explored in this paper. “Literary consecration” and “spiritual naturalization” are taken as the main ways to understand her cultural pursuit after she gained Chinese citizenship. Constructing new identity and rebuilding the new national recognition were the thrust for Ruth Weiss to write Lu Xun in different forms spanning for more than three decades. As a relatively less mentioned name, Ruth Weiss and her identity reconstruction process are discussed in the first part of the paper. Her writing as literary consecration and spiritual naturalization is analyzed in depth by using historical records and evidences presented in the book as well as her other writings of Lu Xun in the following two parts, which concluded with a discussion on the significance of the study. It is hoped that the study on Ruth Weiss and her writing of Lu Xun will offer insight into the relationship between (non)literary writing and identity construction.