Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.1, 2024

 

Another Kind of Epic: Native Experience, Women’s Writing, and Lyrical Variations in Yousheng

(Abstract)

 

Wang Wenjing

 

Hu Xuewen’s novel Yousheng (Hope of Life) aims to create a “secret history of life in China in the past hundred years.” Under the general vision of “life,” it penetrates into the gaps of history and memory, exploring the dilemmas and ways out of life, reproduction and living in the context of native civilization. Analyzed from the three levels of native experience, women’s writing and lyrical expression, we can see the difference between the novel and the grand narrative in the traditional sense. The novel maps out the history of the Chinese nation through the life experience of Songzhuang over the past hundred years.