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Loading... A Madman's Diaryby Lu Xun
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This English and Chinese bilingual edition of a "A Madman's Diary" was first published in 1918 by Lu Xun, one of the greatest writers in 20th-century Chinese literature. This short story is one of the first and most influential modern works written in vernacular Chinese and would become a cornerstone of the New Culture Movement. The story was often referred to as "China's first modern short story". This book is selected as one of The 100 Best Books of All Time. The diary form was inspired by Nikolai Gogol's short story "Diary of a Madman, " as was the idea of the madman who sees reality more clearly than those around him. The "madman" sees "cannibalism" both in his family and the village around him, and he then finds cannibalism in the Confucian classics which had long been credited with a humanistic concern for the mutual obligations of society, and thus for the superiority of Confucian civilization. The story was read as an ironic attack on traditional Chinese culture and a call for a New Culture. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)895.13508Literature Literature of other languages Asian (east and south east) languages Chinese Chinese fiction Modern period 1912–2010LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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i wonder who the "they" are in the story though. is it the general townsfolk, or is it a particular grouping? it may be the former, as he mentions children. i wish he would say "why" they are after him.
he says inthe end of the third entry that all through the book "eat people" is scrawled. is it really written inthe book, does he imagine that he sees it, is there a subtle hidden message that says to eat people (ie,, a code or a cypher), or is there an implicit overtone that people should be eaten?
the repetition of phrases in the last passages of entry 4 is quite funny.
"save the children...."