Chinese Literature and the Child : Children and Childhood in Late-Twentieth-Century Chinese Fiction

"Chinese Literature and the Child is a far-reaching study of images of children in post-Cultural Revolution novels and short stories. Considering works from over twenty writers, including some of China's leading literary stars, this book spans two decades of China's recent and rapid transformation. Tracking ideas of the child in Chinese society across the twentieth century, Kate Foster places fictional children within the story of the nation in a study of tropes and themes which range from images of strength and purity to the murderous and amoral. In this ambitious and revealing study, Foster views China's imagined children in relation to major shifts in Chinese culture and society and through literary theory, and argues convincingly for the significance of the child in fiction in the construction of adult identity in a time of change"-- Provided by publisher Front Matter....Pages i-viii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Introduction....Pages 3-8 The Literary Child....Pages 9-34 Children of Reality and Fiction....Pages 35-63 Front Matter....Pages 65-65 Child of Sorrow: The Arrested Infant....Pages 67-92 Corrupt Seed: The Tainted Progeny....Pages 93-117 As Happy as Orphans: The Abandoned Child....Pages 118-147 My Self Reclaimed: The Storytellers....Pages 148-177 Conclusion....Pages 178-187 Back Matter....Pages 188-251