Do famous works of literature need citations? Specifically, in a scholarly paper on philosophy of math I want to mention Mo Yan’s novel Red Sorghum Clan.  It is just as an example of literature, not quoted and not used for any specific purpose. 

Suppose I were to say:


  Think of any famous play, say Shakespeare’s Macbeth.


would I need a citation to some edition of that play? 

Of course if I wanted to refer to a particular edition of any novel or play I would have to cite it. And if I were offering a statistical analysis of language in the novel I would have to cite a particular edition.  But I am not doing those things. 

When I look at the text, saying “Mo Yan’s Red Sorghum Clan (1986)” looks ridiculously stuffy to me.  This is no journal article or even an academic book.  And as far as the practical issue of readers who want to find it, the title by itself will be far more helpful than any reference to a particular edition which the reader might or might not have any way of finding.

Or am I being ridiculous?  Should I just make the citation?
When I published a paper on statistical analysis of various texts, which included really famous works, I gave full references. Why I think they are deserved:


what you consider a famous work may be in fact unknown to a reader and she may become genuinely interested in the work - in that case the more bibliographical data, the better (e.g. call me simple-minded, but I have never heard of Red Sorghum Clan);
you may be implicitly referring to a passage that was present in particular edition, but was not present in others;
where do you draw a line between a scientific work and a work of art that does not require a citation?
in your example you are not citing an original work (which, according to wikipedia is titled 红高粱家族), but a certain derivative work, a translation, done by a certain translator, who - inter alia - came with the English version of the title. I think one should then give precise pointers to this translation.


Also, check whether your manual of style says anything on the matter.