Purposely Lost in the Labyr inth: The Postmodern Condition of Hongloumeng
Date Issued
1999-07-31
Date
1999-07-31
Author(s)
DOI
882411H002045
Abstract
This project purports to present in book
form a re-reading of The Dream of the Red
Chamber (Hong-lou-meng) in light of
contemporary literary and cultural theories.
It is divided into seven chapters: 1) Two
Accounts of Origin:Predestination and
Chance; 2) Paradise Lost / Paradise Poetic:
Art and Life; 3) Purposely Lost in the
Labyrinth: Tracing Origin and Obliquing
Origin (or semination and dis-semination); 4)
Fatal Seduction: Trap and Flight; 5) Daiyu or
Baochai?: Decision and Deferral; 6) Yin:
Attachment and Differance; 7) Conclusion:
Cao Xueqin v.s. Cao Xueqin. The first
chapter establishes the basis for the whole
reading. I will mainly employ the theories
of autobiography and metafiction to posit the
thesis that Hongloumeng is to a surprising
extent a metafiction. The outer layer of
Hongloumeng frames the inner core of Shitou-
ji . The novel therefore has a never
suspected agenda that develops a rather
sophisticated comment on the relationship
between art and life. The second chapter
utilizes Bataille’s theories of general
economy and labyrinth to examine the
confounding parallel between two triangle
relationships: Xue Pan/ Xiang-Ling/ Xia Jingui
and Bao-yu/ Dai-yu/ Bao-chai. The
result will bring to light the novel’s basic
tendency toward loss (of conventional
“meaning”). On the basis of the insights
provided by the first two chapters, the third
chapter further delves into the rebus of the
relationship between art and life as bodied
forth in the novel. In other words, what
concerns us here can also be understood as
how this novel negotiates between “paradise
lost” and “paradise poetic.” Chapter four
makes a combined use of Baudrillard’s
theory of seduction Lacan’s theory of gaze
and look to examine how Baoyu is caught in
a tug-of-war between the Gread Void and the
stone, both of which claim to be the place
where he has originated. This examination
will reveal the true nature of the Great Void
as an accomplice of the Confucian thinking, a
phenomenon which has never been
satisfactorily accounted for. Chapter five
explores in the light of poststructuralist
theories and psychoanalysis the significance
of Baoyu’s having to choose between Daiyu
and Baochai, a significance that actually
underlies the human condition. Chapter six
uses similar theories to analyze the entangled
relationship between rou-yin and yi-yin, one
which eventually will appear to poise
uneasily on a tension between attachment and
differance. In Chapter seven we come to a
tentative conclusion of this re-reading. It
will enlist the theories concerning modernity
and (of) postmodernity to shed light on the
two intertwining and yet often conflicting
attitudes toward life that underlie this novel.
Subjects
desire
seduction
metafiction
modernity
postmodernity
gaze
art / life
chance
yin (attachment)
autobiography
Dream of the Red Chamber (Hongloumeng)
SDGs
Publisher
臺北市：國立臺灣大學外國語文學系暨研究所
Type
report
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