Abstract
Since the 1960s, Chinese American scholars' criticisms of Lu Xun have experienced a paradigm shift from aesthetic criticism and biographical criticism to deconstructive criticism, forming a homogeneous relationship with the development of American literary criticism. Especially from the 1990s onwards, under the influence of postmodernism and postcolonialism, Chinese American scholars have critically revisited the issue of “origin” and “totality”, which registers a general tendency of radical “patricide”. They strategically consider Lu Xun, “father of modern Chinese literature”, as a symbol of nationalism, and deconstruct Lu Xun's authorial intention with a skeptical stance, consequently reversing the power relations between writers and critics. Although the theoretical expansion of globalization continues to promote the theorization and diversification of Chinese American scholars' criticisms of Lu Xun, it also threatens to lead to the arbitrariness of critical power and other disadvantages such as overinterpretation, theoretical homogeneity and neglect of literary facts, which require critical reflection on the epistemological level.
Keywords
American literary criticism, overseas studies of modern Chinese literature, Lu Xun, deconstructive criticism
First Page
82
Last Page
90
Recommended Citation
Li, Shi. 2024. "From “Rewriting Lu Xun” to “Patricide”: Historical Investigation into and Reflection on Chinese American Scholars' Criticisms of Lu Xun." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 43, (6): pp.82-90. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol43/iss6/10
