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The Aporia of Modernity: Focused on memory, oblivion and euphoria as metaphors represented in 21st-century Chinese Science Fiction

  • Journal of Chinese Language and Literature
  • 2023, (92), pp.139-174
  • DOI : 10.15792/clsyn..92.202304.139
  • Publisher : Chinese Literary Society Of Yeong Nam
  • Research Area : Humanities > Chinese Language and Literature
  • Received : March 10, 2023
  • Accepted : April 14, 2023
  • Published : April 30, 2023

Kwon, Hye Jin 1

1고려대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

It has been analyzed that 21st century Chinese science fiction has made a very positive contribution to Chinese science fiction literature by distinguishing it from 20th century works while forming a new terrain through the emergence of excellent “gèngxīndài(更新代)” writers. Specifically, the characters desire to escape in 21st century works “found within a confined and heterogeneous space of daily life seems to have a distinction from 20th century works in that they present active and challenging ways of modern thinking. Based on these facts, this study focuses on the fact that the majority of Chinese science fiction works in the 21st century are centered on the heterotopia space in both external and internal aspects but also in the internal form. However, I agree with the argument that the essential meaning of heterotopia can be found through the stories of the “subjects” occupying the space, so this study will focus on the “subject” aspect of realizing the order in the heterotopia space. In other words, this study is an attempt to convert heterotopia, which has been regarded as a concept of ‘space’, into a problem of ‘subject’. Therefore, a review of the heterotopia space, the processing method of characters, and its operation can be presented as a shortcut to looking into the nature of the times and the order of modernity, and as a way to understand the characteristics of 21st century Chinese science fiction. At this time, Nietzsche's thoughts, which have been revived in modern times living in the 21st century, will be a good basis for insight and understanding the ‘subjects’ in heterogeneous spaces. Accordingly, in this discussion, the 21st century’s representative ‘xīnshēngdài(新生代)’, ‘gèngxīndài(更新代)’ writers award-winning works will be analyzed. In addition, I would like to examine the representative works contained in the collection the collection ‘宇宙摩天輪’(2010) which is considered a milestone in Hong Kong science fiction from a diachronic perspective. Hong Kong, which has stood as the center of global capital since the 1980s, has been considered a contradictory and special space where constant conflicts between the old and the East and the West intersect. However, it remains irony in Hong Kong’s science fiction world that the development of science fiction in Hong Kong has not reached the level of mainland China and the peak in a good growth environment without any cultural constraints. In this respect, this study intends to discuss works that are different from mainland China and Taiwan in terms of styles and themes with diversity that encompasses the fields of history, culture, love, religion, and politics in the collection mentioned earlier. In particular, as Hong Kong is regarded as a post- modern culture different from mainland Chinese culture in the 80s and 90s when the golden age of 21st-century Chinese science fiction is based on China’s economic growth and technological development, the insightful search for the issues of science fiction created by Hong Kong's relationship with mainland China can be seen as a valuable test of 21st-century Chinese science fiction.

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* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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