Title: A Textual Hole of Madman’s Dairy: On the Speaking Ego and Psychological Subject in Lu Xun’s Fiction
Lecturer: John Zou (Guest Professor, Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, Chongqing University)
Chairperson: LUO Gang (Professor, Department of Chinese Language and Literature, East China Normal University)
Date: 3 pm, April 27th, 2016 (Wednesday)
Venue: Room 5303, Building of School of Humanities, Minhang Campus, ECNU
Sponsor: Si-mian Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities, ECNU
Abstract of the Lecture:
Lu Xun’s Madman’s Diary is one of the first stories a modern Chinese narrates about his modern condition, and has over the century gathered voluminous commentary. But its most significant textual break that testifies to the zenith of protagonist’s madness has almost escaped attention of all major critics. My close reading of the work and its connection with the writer’s other major short stories seeks to rekindle interest in the phenomenon of psychological crisis in Chinese cultural modernity and place the studies of Lu Xun’s oeuvres upon a new footing.
Brief Introduction of the Lecturer:
John Zou receives BA in English from Fudan and PhD in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley. His research has been focused on modern Chinese literature, literary modernities, psychoanalysis, theater and film. Currently he is finishing a book on Republican spoken drama. The readings on Lu Xun represent an effort to bring Freud and Lacan to bear on the making of psychological fiction in post-May Fourth China.