Value in What is Saved and What is Lost: Textology in Mao Dun’s Eclipse

Abstract

Mao Dun’s seminal trilogy Eclipse was written in 1927–1928, directly after the failed Nanchang uprising. The trilogy is exceptional at least in part because it contains the author’s frustration and inner conflict that came from trying to understand this devastating loss. In 1954, while he served as the Minister of Culture for the People’s Republic of China, Mao Dun made fundamental and sweeping edits to all three novels. He made changes in an effort to suit the changed political situation, to make his narrative voice more consistent, to make his characters more stereotypical, and in some cases, to tone down the more explicit sensuality of the original texts. However, through an analysis of these alterations, this paper shows that the edited edition is a diminished work.

Keywords

textology / Mao Dun / academic bibliography / Eclipse / edited fiction

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2016 Higher Education Press and Brill