CCLA01: Strangers to Ourselves: the Critical Study of Narrative

Week 11 (2): Red Sorghum--Genre and History

Read the following texts:

Mo Yan, Red Sorghum

"Wu Song kills a Tiger on Jingyang Ridge" from Shui Hu Zhuan

Mackerras, Colin "The War Against Japan; the Civil War"

Reading Strategies and Preparation

In this session, we'll be considering how the notions of genre, metafiction, and metahistory might be applied to a Red Sorghum. You are welcome to post any response to or question that you'd like discussed about Mo Yan's novel with these concerns in mind. You can also respond at length to a point raised by another class member posting this week. Things you might wish to consider:

• The way the novel is constructed and the literary techniques used. The manipulation of time, narrational strategies, and the use of setting would seem particularly interesting to me.
• The manner in which Red Sorghum fulfils or challenges the genre conventions expressed in "Wu Song kills a Tiger on Jingyang Ridge", wuxia stories, or other genres of Chinese writing with which you may be familar .
• Whether Red Sorghum can be seen as metafiction.
• Whether Red Sorghum can be seen as a metahistorical rewriting of the historical events described in Colin Mackerras's article.