title: The tension of national allegory: the search for Chinese identity and modernity – an analysis of Chinese literature in the post-Mao era in the context of globalization

authors: Nie, Mao

abstract: This dissertation focuses on an analysis of Chinese literature in the post-Mao era in the context of globalization. It utilizes Fredric Jameson's third-world cultural theory, particularly his ideas relating to national allegory, and applies theoretical constructs, such as postmodernism (e.g the theories of Jean-Francois Lyotard), postcolonial theory (e.g Edward Said’s Orientalism), Julia Kristeva’s intertextuality, the carnival theory and the idea of polyphony put forward by M. M. Bakhin, the theories of Michel Foucault, Wilhelm Reich’s character analysis, and Sigmund Freud’s theories of psychoanalysis. The dissertation provides a focused textual analysis of a number of literary trends that emerged in contemporary China, namely, Scar literature, Misty poetry, Root-Seeking literature, Avant-garde literature and New Realism literature. It decodes a selection of representative works from each of these literary schools, and interprets the characteristics of the key literary groups of each period. By doing so, it attempts to enrich and develop the established western theories referred to above by means of an analytical rereading of the selected texts.

The first aim of my analysis is to attain a measure of “historical depth”. For this purpose, as one example, Scar by Lu Xinhua (published in 1978) is reread intertextually with Benediction by Lu Xun (published in 1928), and with The Song of Youth by Yang Mo (published in 1958). The critical perspective adopted develops further both Julia Kristeva’s theory of intertextuality and M.M. Bakhin’s carnival configuration, as well as providing new insights into the “national allegory” theory of Fredric Jameson.

Second, my analysis aims to achieve a “synchronal broadness”, as can be evidenced in the examination of Root-Seeking literature where an analogy is drawn between Bababa and Nununu by Han Shaogong. The analysis not only employs Fredric Jameson’s theories as reference, it also applies Kristeva’s feminism, theories from Michel Foucault and Wilhelm Reich, as well as relevant theories from post-modernism and post-colonialism. By means of a thorough decoding of these two texts with a similar motif, but different story lines, written by the same author, we find that they display the textual elements of a strong rational design, reflecting an imagined utopian order that is characteristic of all Root-seeking literature.

Furthermore, the methodology intends to create a “three-dimensional solidness,” as is shown in the supra-spatiotemporal and multi-dimensional psychoanalysis of the poetry by Yi Lei of the Misty Poetry school. It is sometimes believed that modern “Han poetry” separated itself from ancient classical literature, deviating from Chinese cultural tradition. This rebellion against tradition and the succumbing to Western literature, it is posited, have deprived modern Chinese poetry of its Chineseness and generated a double crisis - a “temporal crisis,” which means lagging behind the West, and a “normative crisis,” which means always being inferior to the Western original. This has resulted in calls for the development of a style of poetry that can be regarded as truly original. The analysis in this dissertation of the Misty poetry school provides an answer to the intrinsic relationship between '”Chineseness” and “global universality”, the individual “small I” and the national “big I”.

As another example, the works of the two writers Ma Yuan and Yu Hua, whose aesthetic tendencies are diametrically opposite, are examined, followed by a review of the avant-garde work The Little House on the Hill by Can Xue. In addition, a number of interpretations of The Landscape by Fang Fang are analyzed from different perspectives.

In conclusion, the Chinese literature of the post-Mao era has its own unique literary features and textual messages. Influences, both traditional and contemporary, local and international, have imbued it with elements that belong, variously, to the categories of “pre-modern”, “modern” and “postmodern”. It reveals that in contemporary China “an intrinsic mode” or “cultural order” exists of subversion and rehabilitation, disintegration and reconstruction, deviation and normalization, edge and center, ruler and ruled, underground and open, undercurrent and mainstream, the elite and the populace, official and non-governmental, commerce and politics, mass media and power. This is the complexity of the culture that explains how the ever-developing Chinese literature of the post-Mao era has at once its own intrinsic “boundaries” as well as “limitless” space for creative invention.

Thus, the most important feature or contribution of this dissertation is that through a critical dissection of a selection of key, representative works, new insights can be gleaned into the layers of rich textual meaning underlying each narrative, thereby enabling a deeper and a more comprehensive appreciation of the significance of contemporary Chinese literature within a global context.

text: The tension of national allegory: the search for Chinese identity and modernity – an analysis of Chinese literature in the post-Mao era in the context of globalization This dissertation focuses on an analysis of Chinese literature in the post-Mao era in the context of globalization. It utilizes Fredric Jameson's third-world cultural theory, particularly his ideas relating to national allegory, and applies theoretical constructs, such as postmodernism (e.g the theories of Jean-Francois Lyotard), postcolonial theory (e.g Edward Said’s Orientalism), Julia Kristeva’s intertextuality, the carnival theory and the idea of polyphony put forward by M. M. Bakhin, the theories of Michel Foucault, Wilhelm Reich’s character analysis, and Sigmund Freud’s theories of psychoanalysis. The dissertation provides a focused textual analysis of a number of literary trends that emerged in contemporary China, namely, Scar literature, Misty poetry, Root-Seeking literature, Avant-garde literature and New Realism literature. It decodes a selection of representative works from each of these literary schools, and interprets the characteristics of the key literary groups of each period. By doing so, it attempts to enrich and develop the established western theories referred to above by means of an analytical rereading of the selected texts.

The first aim of my analysis is to attain a measure of “historical depth”. For this purpose, as one example, Scar by Lu Xinhua (published in 1978) is reread intertextually with Benediction by Lu Xun (published in 1928), and with The Song of Youth by Yang Mo (published in 1958). The critical perspective adopted develops further both Julia Kristeva’s theory of intertextuality and M.M. Bakhin’s carnival configuration, as well as providing new insights into the “national allegory” theory of Fredric Jameson.

Second, my analysis aims to achieve a “synchronal broadness”, as can be evidenced in the examination of Root-Seeking literature where an analogy is drawn between Bababa and Nununu by Han Shaogong. The analysis not only employs Fredric Jameson’s theories as reference, it also applies Kristeva’s feminism, theories from Michel Foucault and Wilhelm Reich, as well as relevant theories from post-modernism and post-colonialism. By means of a thorough decoding of these two texts with a similar motif, but different story lines, written by the same author, we find that they display the textual elements of a strong rational design, reflecting an imagined utopian order that is characteristic of all Root-seeking literature.

Furthermore, the methodology intends to create a “three-dimensional solidness,” as is shown in the supra-spatiotemporal and multi-dimensional psychoanalysis of the poetry by Yi Lei of the Misty Poetry school. It is sometimes believed that modern “Han poetry” separated itself from ancient classical literature, deviating from Chinese cultural tradition. This rebellion against tradition and the succumbing to Western literature, it is posited, have deprived modern Chinese poetry of its Chineseness and generated a double crisis - a “temporal crisis,” which means lagging behind the West, and a “normative crisis,” which means always being inferior to the Western original. This has resulted in calls for the development of a style of poetry that can be regarded as truly original. The analysis in this dissertation of the Misty poetry school provides an answer to the intrinsic relationship between '”Chineseness” and “global universality”, the individual “small I” and the national “big I”.

As another example, the works of the two writers Ma Yuan and Yu Hua, whose aesthetic tendencies are diametrically opposite, are examined, followed by a review of the avant-garde work The Little House on the Hill by Can Xue. In addition, a number of interpretations of The Landscape by Fang Fang are analyzed from different perspectives.

In conclusion, the Chinese literature of the post-Mao era has its own unique literary features and textual messages. Influences, both traditional and contemporary, local and international, have imbued it with elements that belong, variously, to the categories of “pre-modern”, “modern” and “postmodern”. It reveals that in contemporary China “an intrinsic mode” or “cultural order” exists of subversion and rehabilitation, disintegration and reconstruction, deviation and normalization, edge and center, ruler and ruled, underground and open, undercurrent and mainstream, the elite and the populace, official and non-governmental, commerce and politics, mass media and power. This is the complexity of the culture that explains how the ever-developing Chinese literature of the post-Mao era has at once its own intrinsic “boundaries” as well as “limitless” space for creative invention.

Thus, the most important feature or contribution of this dissertation is that through a critical dissection of a selection of key, representative works, new insights can be gleaned into the layers of rich textual meaning underlying each narrative, thereby enabling a deeper and a more comprehensive appreciation of the significance of contemporary Chinese literature within a global context.

year: 2003

title: Lock-in thermography using miniature infra-red cameras and integrated actuators for defect identification in composite materials

authors: Ólafsson, G.

abstract: A novel approach for thermographic Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) of laminated polymer composite structures is presented. The technique is based on Lock-In Thermography (LIT), which traditionally uses an external heat source. Here a new means of internal heating, via a lightweight embedded actuator capable of providing highly repeatable and uniform heating is presented. The equipment cost, complexity and hence size is reduced by removing the need for high power external thermal excitation. Instead, the necessary temperature modulation of the internal actuator is achieved with a compact and low-cost Arduino controlled circuit. The size and cost of the equipment is further reduced by demonstrating that a miniature printed circuit board mounted thermal core type micro-bolometer can be used effectively for LIT. The performance of the thermal core is quantitatively compared with the more expensive and bulky traditional infra-red cameras. It is shown that the thermal core can detect defects with similar overall performance as a cooled photon detector and an uncooled micro-bolometer. The low-cost, compact nature and small mass of the thermal core offers great potential in thermographic inspection opening the possibility of deploying devices permanently on structures in conjunction with the embedded actuators for in-situ monitoring in the service environment.

text: Lock-in thermography using miniature infra-red cameras and integrated actuators for defect identification in composite materials A novel approach for thermographic Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) of laminated polymer composite structures is presented. The technique is based on Lock-In Thermography (LIT), which traditionally uses an external heat source. Here a new means of internal heating, via a lightweight embedded actuator capable of providing highly repeatable and uniform heating is presented. The equipment cost, complexity and hence size is reduced by removing the need for high power external thermal excitation. Instead, the necessary temperature modulation of the internal actuator is achieved with a compact and low-cost Arduino controlled circuit. The size and cost of the equipment is further reduced by demonstrating that a miniature printed circuit board mounted thermal core type micro-bolometer can be used effectively for LIT. The performance of the thermal core is quantitatively compared with the more expensive and bulky traditional infra-red cameras. It is shown that the thermal core can detect defects with similar overall performance as a cooled photon detector and an uncooled micro-bolometer. The low-cost, compact nature and small mass of the thermal core offers great potential in thermographic inspection opening the possibility of deploying devices permanently on structures in conjunction with the embedded actuators for in-situ monitoring in the service environment.

year: 2022

title: Alice Grey Nicholls, daughter of William, and her husband, Charles John Dearle

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: Alice Grey Nicholls was the ‘half-caste’ daughter of a Pakeha Maori, William Nicholls. She would marry a Pakeha and have several children, losing her only son but bringing up a family of daughters, who all received a Pakeha education. Having a moko emphasized her Maori heritage, and she was on good terms with many Maori.
Charles John Dearle, a Londoner, after some involvement in gold mining spent most of his life working for the government. At the request of Maori landowners, from 1883 until 1895 he allocated goldfields revenue amongst them, a challenging task. He was also involved in land purchases both on behalf of the government and for personal gain. 
They farmed her land at Mangaiti, near Te Aroha, Alice continuing to farm it profitably after his early death, assisted for a time by her daughters. She purchased more land, and to enable her to sell some portions of it she had it declared European land, an illustration of her astuteness in business; her family obtained a good financial position from her farming and land dealings. When she died, aged 81, her Pakeha friends fondly remembered her.

text: Alice Grey Nicholls, daughter of William, and her husband, Charles John Dearle Alice Grey Nicholls was the ‘half-caste’ daughter of a Pakeha Maori, William Nicholls. She would marry a Pakeha and have several children, losing her only son but bringing up a family of daughters, who all received a Pakeha education. Having a moko emphasized her Maori heritage, and she was on good terms with many Maori.
Charles John Dearle, a Londoner, after some involvement in gold mining spent most of his life working for the government. At the request of Maori landowners, from 1883 until 1895 he allocated goldfields revenue amongst them, a challenging task. He was also involved in land purchases both on behalf of the government and for personal gain. 
They farmed her land at Mangaiti, near Te Aroha, Alice continuing to farm it profitably after his early death, assisted for a time by her daughters. She purchased more land, and to enable her to sell some portions of it she had it declared European land, an illustration of her astuteness in business; her family obtained a good financial position from her farming and land dealings. When she died, aged 81, her Pakeha friends fondly remembered her.

year: 2016