“After China, It Had Been Impossible”: China, History and Sexual Anxiety in Brian Castro’s After China
This paper focuses on the fourth novel of contemporary Australian writer Brian Castro, After China (1992), and discusses the central importance of sexual anxiety to the work. The main character of the novel, a Chinese architect who migrated to Australia after the Cultural Revolution, is left both ca...
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| Опубликовано в: : | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/transtexts, |
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| Главный автор: | |
| Формат: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Опубликовано: |
Transtext(e)s Transcultures
2011
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| Online-ссылка: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Итог: | This paper focuses on the fourth novel of contemporary Australian writer Brian Castro, After China (1992), and discusses the central importance of sexual anxiety to the work. The main character of the novel, a Chinese architect who migrated to Australia after the Cultural Revolution, is left both castrated – he had a serious train accident that annihilated all possibilities of having children – and unable to have sex after his traumatic ordeals in China. Significantly, the character represents China in dichotomous terms, since he draws a strict opposition between a sensual, free ancient China and a threatening, oppressive contemporary China. His sexual anxieties thus inform his binary representation of China, articulate the structure of the novel, but also involve a critique of biopolitics and its impact on individual sensibilities and intimacies. |
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