The Death of an Auteur: Qiu Huadong’s Confession at Noon and the Spiritual Crisis of Intellectuals

Abstract

Written by Qiu Huadong in 2000, Confession at Noon (Zhengwu de gongci) is a novel about the life of a renowned auteur one year after his suicide. Set at the end of the twentieth century, the story highlights the social and political change of the 1990s and its impact on the spiritual condition of intellectuals. The novel also addresses the changing role of writers as they confront new challenges presented by the rapid modernization and economic progress at the turn of the century. In this paper, I illustrate the ways in which Qiu unravels the spiritual agony of intellectuals through the portrayal of a film director’s dramatic life. I focus particularly on how Qiu uses narrative devices such as intertexuality and pastiche to illuminate the spiritual crisis and changing social position of intellectuals in the 1990s, and how he inserts fictional selves in the storytelling process to rethink his role as a writer-intellectual in the new era.

Key words： Qiu Huadong; intellectuals; writers; identity; spiritual crisis