TRANSCENDENTAL DILEMMAS AND SELF-REFLECTION: A PHILOSOPHICAL REINTERPRETATION OF THE NEW YEAR’S SACRIFICE
The New Year’s Sacrifice" by Lu Xun, a celebrated exploration of his native Lu Town, provides a profound commentary on the paradoxes within rural Chinese society. This paper aims to reinterpret the novella through a philosophical and theological lens, leveraging a New Criticism framework alongs...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
University of Innsbruck in cooperation with the John Hick Centre for Philosophy of Religion at the University of Birmingham
2024
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| In: |
European journal for philosophy of religion
Year: 2024, Volume: 16, Issue: 2, Pages: 394-417 |
| Further subjects: | B
Paradox and Irony
B Psycholinguistics Research Methods B Human Nature B The New Year’s Sacrifice B the New Criticism B Self-Reflection B Cognitive Mapping |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The New Year’s Sacrifice" by Lu Xun, a celebrated exploration of his native Lu Town, provides a profound commentary on the paradoxes within rural Chinese society. This paper aims to reinterpret the novella through a philosophical and theological lens, leveraging a New Criticism framework alongside methodologies such as close reading, content analysis, psycholinguistics, and cognitive mapping. Our analysis reveals a deeply entrenched social hierarchy characterized by the senior/central class led by Master Lusi, a duplicitous middle class, and a marginalized lower class epitomized by Xianglin Sao. Within this rigid social structure, Lu Xun crafts a narrative rich in paradoxical dynamics and carnivalesque contradictions, highlighting both the microcosmic personal paradoxes and the macrocosmic thematic ironies, particularly the ironic notion of "blessing" that infuses the narrative with a complex tension. Moreover, the text engages in a profound act of self-reflexive paradox where the narrator, as both a construct and a reflection of Lu Xun’s own decontextualized self, serves as a medium for exploring themes of existential alienation and self-denial. This reinterpretation posits Lu Xun’s work not merely as a social critique but as a spiritual and philosophical meditation on the nature of suffering, identity, and the human condition, inviting a deeper understanding of the existential and theological underpinnings of his literary expression. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: European journal for philosophy of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.24204/ejpr.2024.4434 |