HOMOSEXUALITY AND SELF-IMPOSED EXILE IN THE SONG OF EVERLASTING SORROW

Abstract

In this paper, I hermeneutically scrutinise a 1995 award-winning masterpiece The Song of Everlasting Sorrow and investigate its homosexual motif that lacks sufficient critical analysis. The author Wang Anyi features emotional and erotic entanglements between an archetypal yet extraordinary Shanghai woman Wang Qiyao and an array of male characters. I propound that apart from the protagonist’s unceasing melancholia, as illuminated by the title, the narrative also concerns lifelong dolorousness of two female supporting characters, viz. Wu Peizhen and Jiang Lili, both of whom establish bonds with Qiyao at puberty. I postulate that analogous to schoolgirls depicted by Ailing Zhang, Peizhen and Lili demonstrate same-sex adoration of Qiyao, yet disparate from spurious, proto- or quasi-homosexuality portrayed in Zhang’s writing, their zealousness and loyalty to Qiyao are not fugacious. Moreover, Peizhen’s perpetual animation is also inextricably intertwined with acrimony triggered by her failed pursuit of heterosexual romance with Qiyao’s committed admirer, leading to Peizhen’s unremitting self-mutilation and self-banishment.