The Aesthetics of the Grotesque in Modern Chinese Narrative

This chapter focuses on the tradition of grotesque in modern Chinese fiction, as a way of “reading modernity” which appears in different forms of narrative (novels and short stories) and develops presenting common features in very different epochs and authors from the May Fourth literature down to the turn of the twentieth century. The aesthetics of the grotesque is analysed through a range of examples, from the most common elements and motives (madmen, “humanimals” and misfits) to narrative patterns, such as fragmented plots and distorted time, and to the use of grotesque in language and style.