Subversion et répétition : représentation de la mère dans la littérature chinoise féminine du 20e siècle
The mother’s representation has undergone a literary development and a profound transformation in 20th century Chinese history and thought. The literature of the May 4 Movement is characterized by the ideal of great nationalist salvation and revolutionary discourse. From her participation in the Chinese Communist Party, the writer Ding Ling sought to associate feminist writing with the socialist struggle. Sisterhood has marked her representation of the mother: the mother becomes a comrade with whom one advances neck and neck. By idealizing the mother-daughter relationship, the writer, having continued the May 4 patricide, projects an embellished future: the hierarchical society is fundamentally transformed into a world of perfect equality.  Xiao Hong considers motherhood not as a natural “gift” but as a severe punishment that over-exploits the female body. Animalized, the mother is reduced to an object of sacrifice normalized by a patriarchal society. In her latest novels, the author adopts a transcendental approach that no longer opposes the feminine to the masculine, the animal to the human, the inanimate to the animate. By describing “male” motherhood, she expresses a compassionate affinity of all colonized people, without distinction, to transgress social normativity.  Modernist writers, for their part, free themselves from the political framework in their representation of the mother. Zhang Ailing’s family story focuses on personal and everyday details and reveals an involuntary but fatalistic reproduction of motherhood between generations. Her coolness, which contrasts with the strong fury or ardor of the May 4 writers, is deepened in the avant-garde literature.  However, the latter is more subversive in representing the mother. In support of an absurd writing on tokophobia and infanticide, Jiang Zidan describes a maternal rage that deconstructs some cruel and obscure truth about the failure of the nuclear family in solidarity, heterosexual marriage and conventions that reinforce phallocentrism.  Neo-realism pushes women writers to return to a traditional description of the mother and her role by accentuating its banality. Without embellishing or sanctifying, Chi Li remains faithful to the neo-realistic principle and describes the ambivalence of the ordinary mother in her fictional works. In her prose, she shows her confusion about the insurmountable gap between mother and child.  The intergenerational gap remains problematic in the literature of the Chinese diaspora. Hong Ying and her writing on the possibility of repairing the relationship with the mother reflects a deeper nostalgia for her country and at the same time, a strong desire to overcome her perpetual orphan complex.
Mother modern Chinese literature feminism literary representation