The Making of Small Literature as World Literature: Taiwanese Writer Wu Ming-Yi

Abstract

This paper investigates how the transformation of the Taiwanese writer Wu Ming-Yi, from a peripheral writer to a world literature writer, takes place. It first defines the status of Wu as a world literature writer with a discussion of the international reception of Wu’s translated works. It then studies how Wu overcomes the four obstacles for small literature writers: literary destitution, backwardness, remoteness, and invisibility. While Wu appropriates foreign patrimonies to deal with the obstacle of literary destitution, he establishes a modern profile of himself as a writer on a par with internationally acclaimed writers to counter the problem of backwardness. This study examines the complex meanings of Wu’s magical realist mode of storytelling. It argues that the global currency of this consecrated mode helps Wu address the problem of remoteness. At the same time, the magical realist mode works to reflect Wu’s planetary vision and generates the literariness that is missing in many works of environmental world literature. In addition to the literary performance of the writer, the study discusses how Wu’s agents, publishers, and the Taiwanese government join efforts to tackle the problem of invisibility.