Edge, In A Civilized And Rational

As a social phenomenon, mania lies at an edge position; as a literatural image group, maniac also lies at an edge position. This position, however, gives it a particular angle of view, therefore, many thinkers and writers pay great attention to it. This dissertation tries to briefly describe the origin and development of the maniac images, and analyze the double meaning to deconstruct both the civilization and the rationality.It is divided into fire parts:Introduction: Briefly explain the meaning of mania, and delineate the relationship between the mania images in the Chinese modern literature and the traditional and foreign literature.Section One: The deconstruction of the traditional culture. The Chinese traditional culture has been losing its vitality during its spreading and inheriting process. In Lu Xun's short stories, The Diary of a Madman and The Forever Ignited Lantern, the writer has uncovered the absurdity of traditional culture by describing the destiny of the madman.Section Two: The rebuilding of personality. Both the romanticpersonality of Qu Yuan in Ge Moruo's X/'ang Lei and the arbitrary personality of the "Madman" written by Shen Congwen aim at the defects of the traditional pragmatic personality. Meanwhile, they also appeal for the rebuilding of the national personality.Section Three: The interrogation of Living. Some realist writers criticize the social system by describing the humiliation and harm submitted by the maniac group. When such critical purpose penetrates into the inner contradiction between rationality and irrationality the maniac images also discover certain living dilemma of human being. Jiang Weizu, an image created by Lu Ling, is an example of this kind of writing.Epilogue: Briefly review the destiny of the maniac images in the history of Chinese modern literature.