Ideology, Power, Text: Self-Representation and the Peasant "Other" in Modern Chinese Literature by Yi-tsi Mei Feuerwerker (review)

the desire to bring these motivations together continues to offer the most promising agenda for ecocritics in the academy today. Yi-tsi Mei Feuerwerker. Ideology, Power, Text: SelfRepresentation and the Peasant "Other"in Modern Chinese Literature. Stanford University Press, 1998. 32Ip. Christopher Lupke Washington State University Feuerwerkers studyprovides a broad understanding ofmodern Chinese literature while remaining true to its thematic goal, analyzing the modern intellectual's depiction of the peasantry, a relationship "forever oppositional yet inextricably interlocked " (G). Her thesis is that Chinese writers throughout the twentieth century have been fascinatedwith representing their illiterate counterparts located in the countryside. Focusing on this theme implicitlyallows Chinese literature to be viewed not as a pale version ofWestern literature, forever in search ofways it too can partake in writing the universal human condition, but as something that has its own peculiar dynamic. The intellectual self/peasant other representational matrix may exist in other literary traditions, but it is not one we foremost associate with the West. This book is a wonderful general introduction to the subject even as it succeeds in delivering many nuanced readings of specific texts. The themes are clear, but the savvy exposition prevents it from collapsing into a procrustian meditation. Feuerwerker accomplishes this bygiving each generation its full due, since each approaches this problem ofrepresentation somewhat differently . Little scholarship has been written on this key theme until now. Onlywith the advent ofpoststructural theory have critics begun to behold the ideological scaffolding for what it is. Ideology, Power, Text predicates itself upon theories of linguistic and cultural theory, yet is surprisingly free ofjargon, extensive references to metatheorists, or tendentious debate. This will come to many as a relief, but it should not suggest Feuerwerker is naive about theory. She simply chooses to eschew the heavy-handedness involved in employing it. Nevertheless, the limpid quality ofthe book does raise questions about how deep the author goes into the enigma ofrepresentation. Feuerwerkers first chapter, ideal for the non-specialist, surveys the evolution ofthe modern intellectual from the premodern Confucian literati. It discusses the traditional bifurcation between "mental" and "physical" laborers. A privileged position has always been afforded to the intellectual, and in fact the "laddet of 118 * ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW * FALL 2002 Reviews success" in traditional China has been through literacy, a Confucian education, and a battery ofexaminations and degrees. China was essentially a meritocracy. Those who worked with their bodies, by contrast, were relegated to a subservient level, as werewomen. Feuerwerker observes that according to Confucian precepts goodwill among the ordinarypeople must be maintained for the emperor to hold this "mandate of heaven." How this mandate is determined rests with the educated elite's ability to "read" heavens omens, which translates into interpreting the will ofthe common people. Feuerwerker delineates these issues with clarity and pith, setting the context for the modern form ofthis "grammatocracy." The modern incarnation consists ofan intelligentsia, most oftenWestern educated, in contrast to a new class of the "peasantry." One addition that could improve Feuerwerkers otherwise excellent first chapterwould be an explanation ofthe May Fourth Movement: May 4th, 1919 when demonstrations were staged at Tiananmen protesting the Treaty ofVersailles. Scholars ofpostcolonial and commonwealth literatures maybe interested to know that Chinawas among thosewho suffered from this ill-crafted testament of colonialism. The identity crisis that spawned the May Fourth Movement was responsible for motivating intellectuals to revitalize the national culture of China. Chapter two continues laying the thematic groundwork, highlighting the importance of the linguistic revolution. This is important information since modern writers shifted almost entirely from writing in classical Chinese to a vernacular idiom. Feuerwerker discusses Hu Shi s contribution as well as that ofthe Marxist theorist Qu Qiubai, subsequently executed, and then she moves to the imposition of Maoist restrictions on literature. This is the chapter where one would expect deeper discussion oftheoretical issues and themes. One wonders whether Foucaultian discourse theory might help in theorizing the problem ofrepresenting the peasantry in intellectual discourse or whether Gramsci's notion ofhegemonycould showhow control was exerted over the peasantrybymeans other than force. Feuerwerkers discussion ofLu Xun in the third chapter, the doyen ofmodern writers, is one ofthe best in English. Feuerwerker discusses Lu Xun's use ofthe Inarrator...