형장의 풍경 ― 루쉰과 바진의 폭력비평과 문학상상

Abstract

This essay examines the execution ground as a fictional arenawhere modern Chinese writers engaged with the politics ofviolence. In particular, I argue that self-criticism is a keycomponent of literati criticism of all manner of violence. Lu Xun,for example, was profoundly interested in the psychology of thosepresent at public executions: the executioner, the condemned andthe crowd. In his essays and short stories, Lu Xun criticized theChinese crowd who lacked sympathy for the victims of violence; atthe same time, he admitted that he played a role in articulatingChina’s national character. In Miewang (Destruction), Ba Jininherits Lu Xun’s legacy by creating the character of a youngrevolutionary who witnesses public beheading; as a result, heprovides details of the execution, and yet remains only a bystander. Despite these authors’ differing illustrations of public execution,they both recognized their political incapacity, and thus expressedself-criticism. Such self-critiques, however, must have been challenging for modern writers who had taken on the responsibility of criticizingChina’s national character. Self-criticism, for this reason,destabilizes the construction of a coherent narrative and requiresthe negotiation of narrative discrepancies. I argue that Lu Xun andBa Jin successfully manage these negotiations through strategicindirection. For example, Lu Xun carefully controls the layers ofnarrative while putting forward his criticism of the nationalcharacter. Similarly, Ba Jin pursues a form of parallelism thatimplies that he is unable to change situations. Through thesenarrative elaborations, the writers explore different but relatedmeans of overcoming their own incapacities; consequently,self-criticism, by way of fictional imagination, transitions toself-beheading and suicidal assassination in which one’s own headis left on public display. Overall, this project supplements theexisting scholarship by pointing out that a self-critical sense ofpolitical incapacity is central to our understanding of the writingsof violence.