Poetics of Rebellion: Hybridity, Minor Narrative, Yang Mu

This lecture attempts to respond critically to the birth of Taiwanese identity through a fastidious reading of Yang Mu’s works.

Two major postcolonial approaches—hybridity and minor narrative—will be deployed to investigate Yang’s unique voice: hybridity, because he is acclaimed for his hybridization of Taiwanese culture with Chinese tradition and Western literature; minor narrative in relation to the marginalization and suppression of the Taiwanese voice, first, directly by the KMT’s authority during the period of martial law and, more recently, indirectly by the CCP.

Through an examination of the postcolonial conditions depicted in Yang Mu’s works from 1970 to 2000, my lecture addresses the following research questions. How does Yang Mu express the ideas of disobedience and discontent? How does his poetry serve as a vehicle to subvert colonial discourse? How can a transcultural writer such as Yang Mu dislocate an official narrative and seek emancipation from it? Using a blend of historical, social, political, and textual analysis, this lecture seeks to contribute to a broader understanding of postcolonial poetry as a tool of resilience and revolt in the face of hegemony.