摘要
Through a close reading of Wei Hui＇s bestseller Shanghai Baby 0999）, this article highlights five elements to delimit a post-romantic neoliberal literary sensibility and its ruptures： （1） a ＂melotraumatic＂ quest for exuberance, （2） denial of dependency, （3） a celebration of individual choice and market rationalities, （4） disillusionment and disappointment, and （5） a quest for intelligibility through narrative. Along the way I probe the narrator＇s residual romanticism as a little-addressed foundation of the novel＇s testimony to a generational sensibility. By examining the relationship between Coco the narrator and Coco the protagonist, I contend that the narrator＇s sustained self-remembering evokes her growing unease with neoliberal values. The tension between post-romantic cynicism and residual romanticism suggests the extent to which a supposedly dissident novel may entice precisely for the ways its deep structure reinforces dominant discourses. Whereas Coco the protagonist follows a logic of consumerism, Coco the narrator gestures to non-commercial values--loyalty, care, empathy, trust, and solidarity. Appreciating the novel＇s residual romanticism alongside its post-romantic cynicism sheds new light on the story, its context, ambiguous feminism, and reception.
Through a close reading of Wei Hui＇s bestseller Shanghai Baby 0999）, this article highlights five elements to delimit a post-romantic neoliberal literary sensibility and its ruptures： （1） a ＂melotraumatic＂ quest for exuberance, （2） denial of dependency, （3） a celebration of individual choice and market rationalities, （4） disillusionment and disappointment, and （5） a quest for intelligibility through narrative. Along the way I probe the narrator＇s residual romanticism as a little-addressed foundation of the novel＇s testimony to a generational sensibility. By examining the relationship between Coco the narrator and Coco the protagonist, I contend that the narrator＇s sustained self-remembering evokes her growing unease with neoliberal values. The tension between post-romantic cynicism and residual romanticism suggests the extent to which a supposedly dissident novel may entice precisely for the ways its deep structure reinforces dominant discourses. Whereas Coco the protagonist follows a logic of consumerism, Coco the narrator gestures to non-commercial values--loyalty, care, empathy, trust, and solidarity. Appreciating the novel＇s residual romanticism alongside its post-romantic cynicism sheds new light on the story, its context, ambiguous feminism, and reception.
