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- Title
Gendered narrative of suffering in Mo Yan's Big Breasts and Wide Hips.
- Authors
Du, Lanlan
- Abstract
Mo Yan's Big Breasts and Wide Hips aroused great controversy when it was published in 1996. This essay argues that a feminist approach and stylistic analysis can contribute to a more thorough understanding of the novel. Mo Yan's folk language style, unique use of simile, metaphor, and magic realism, embedding of different registers of Chinese, and his use of overstatement, irony and black humor all contribute to his alternative construction of China's history. It also argues that the novel should be read allegorically and that although the gendered narrative of suffering speaks to the theme of national trauma well, it contributes to patriarchal ideology by confirming the stereotypical view of mothers as loving and self-sacrificial, and of women as the passive victims of power relations.
- Subjects
BIG Breasts &; Wide Hips (Book); MO Yan, 1955-; METAPHOR; BLACK humor; IDEOLOGY
- Publication
Neohelicon, 2016, Vol 43, Issue 1, p27
- ISSN
0324-4652
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11059-016-0328-y