@article{ART003369484},
author={Zhang Xiang and KIM,MEE JEONG},
title={On the Writing of Life and Death in Mo Yan’s Big Breasts and Wide Hips},
journal={Journal of Chinese Language and Literature},
issn={1225-083X},
year={2026},
number={102},
pages={127-153},
doi={10.15792/clsyn..102.202608.127}
TY - JOUR
AU - Zhang Xiang
AU - KIM,MEE JEONG
TI - On the Writing of Life and Death in Mo Yan’s Big Breasts and Wide Hips
JO - Journal of Chinese Language and Literature
PY - 2026
VL - null
IS - 102
PB - Chinese Literary Society Of Yeong Nam
SP - 127
EP - 153
SN - 1225-083X
AB - This paper examines Mo Yan’s Big Breasts and Wide Hips from the literary motif of “life” and “death,” exploring how the novel unfolds its writing of life and death. It argues that the novel first dissolves the sublimity of traditional life-and-death narratives through the juxtaposition of human and animal life and death, defiled descriptions, and contingent narrative arrangements, thereby reducing human life to natural life and bodily experience. On this basis, the novel further presents the suffering of “life” and the absurdity of “death.” Yet it does not fall into nihilism; instead, it regenerates the meaning of life and death through tenacious survival, maternal protection, resoluteness before death, and lingering spiritual resonance. In this sense, the novel’s life-and-death writing not only echoes the traditional Chinese concept of “ceaseless generation,” the Buddhist view of life as suffering, and modern absurdist philosophy, but also reconstructs these philosophical propositions in literary form. Ultimately, the novel offers a distinctively Mo Yan-style answer to the question of “why one lives”: when religion, history, and rational order can no longer provide definite meaning, life can still establish its reason for existence through primordial bodily will, tenacious survival instinct, and the burden of sustaining life.
KW - 莫言(Mo Yan);≪丰乳肥臀≫(Big Breasts and Wide Hips);生死书写(Life-and-death Writing);苦痛荒诞(Pain and Absurdity);生死哲学(Philosophy of Life and Death)
DO - 10.15792/clsyn..102.202608.127
ER -
Zhang Xiang and KIM,MEE JEONG. (2026). On the Writing of Life and Death in Mo Yan’s Big Breasts and Wide Hips. Journal of Chinese Language and Literature, 102, 127-153.
Zhang Xiang and KIM,MEE JEONG. 2026, "On the Writing of Life and Death in Mo Yan’s Big Breasts and Wide Hips", Journal of Chinese Language and Literature, no.102, pp.127-153. Available from: doi:10.15792/clsyn..102.202608.127
Zhang Xiang, KIM,MEE JEONG "On the Writing of Life and Death in Mo Yan’s Big Breasts and Wide Hips" Journal of Chinese Language and Literature 102 pp.127-153 (2026) : 127.
Zhang Xiang, KIM,MEE JEONG. On the Writing of Life and Death in Mo Yan’s Big Breasts and Wide Hips. 2026; 102 : 127-153. Available from: doi:10.15792/clsyn..102.202608.127
Zhang Xiang and KIM,MEE JEONG. "On the Writing of Life and Death in Mo Yan’s Big Breasts and Wide Hips" Journal of Chinese Language and Literature no.102(2026) : 127-153.doi: 10.15792/clsyn..102.202608.127
Zhang Xiang; KIM,MEE JEONG. On the Writing of Life and Death in Mo Yan’s Big Breasts and Wide Hips. Journal of Chinese Language and Literature, 102, 127-153. doi: 10.15792/clsyn..102.202608.127
Zhang Xiang; KIM,MEE JEONG. On the Writing of Life and Death in Mo Yan’s Big Breasts and Wide Hips. Journal of Chinese Language and Literature. 2026; 102 127-153. doi: 10.15792/clsyn..102.202608.127
Zhang Xiang, KIM,MEE JEONG. On the Writing of Life and Death in Mo Yan’s Big Breasts and Wide Hips. 2026; 102 : 127-153. Available from: doi:10.15792/clsyn..102.202608.127
Zhang Xiang and KIM,MEE JEONG. "On the Writing of Life and Death in Mo Yan’s Big Breasts and Wide Hips" Journal of Chinese Language and Literature no.102(2026) : 127-153.doi: 10.15792/clsyn..102.202608.127
