Norman Mailer in ChinaCriticism and Translation

With the publication of The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer became a major American writer and immediately drew attention from critics in America. But it was not until thirty years later when the second flowering wave of the Mailer criticism emerged in America and Chinese critics began to pay attention to Mailer. Indeed, it was near the end of the 1970s that Norman Mailer came into the Chinese critical world. In 1979, Fan Lu published in Literature, History and Philosophy an article, “On Norman Mailer’s ‘The White Negro,’” and thereby introduced the Chinese reader to Norman Mailer for the first time and started Mailer criticism in China. Later in the same year, Qizhan Wang, in his article, “Existentialism and Contemporary American Novel,” published in Foreign Literature Studies, also made a brief introduction to Mailer and his writing in relation to existentialism. Ever since then, for more than forty years, Mailer has been drawing attention from Chinese readers and critics, and so far, there have been two books, three PhD dissertations and ten Master of Arts theses on Mailer and his works, as well as more than one hundred scholarly and semi-scholarly articles on or related to Mailer and his works in addition to eight books that have been translated into Chinese: The Naked and the Dead, The Deer Park, An American Dream, The Armies of the Night, The Executioner’s Song, Tough Guys Don’t Dance, Marilyn Monroe and The Castle in the Forest.

Although Mailer came into the Chinese critical world in 1979, by the 1980s, there were not many serious publications on his works. In 1980, two articles related to Mailer and his works were published. One, published in Foreign Literatures Recent Developments, offered a short introduction to Mailer’s writing. The other, entitled “The So-called ‘Non-Fiction,’” published in the Readings Magazine, also introduced Mailer’s nonfiction writing.

In 1981, three articles on or related to Mailer and his works were published. Fan Lu, in his “The American Literary Critic Hassan on American Literature,” published in Translations, offered a short introduction to Mailer and his writings. Yue Yun’s “Norman Mailer on Writing,” published in Foreign Literature Studies, was the first article wholly concerned with Mailer since Fan Lu’s “On Norman Mailer’s ‘The White Negro,’” published in 1979. It introduced Mailer’s views on writing to Chinese readers. Dingshan Dong, in his “Supplements to Norman Mailer and Jack Abbott’s In the Belly of the Beast,” published in the Readings, also gave a very short introduction to Mailer in relation to Jack Abbott.

The year of 1982 saw no publication on Mailer and his work in China, but in 1983, three articles were published on Mailer and his works: one was concerned with An American Dream and the other two with Ancient Evenings. Mansu Qian published in Readings an article, “From Daydream to Nightmare: Norman Mailer’s An American Dream,” which was the first scholarly article devoted to the study of Mailer’s fiction. It articulated a thematic exploration of Mailer’s An American Dream, arguing that the novel revealed “the complicity between the American political power and the underworld society,” and that “some characters and plots in the novel are symbolic of the upper class and the lower class in American society.” Dingshan Dong published in Readings an article, “Ancient Evenings: On Norman Mailer and His New Work,” which was an exclusive study of Mailer’s then new novel, Ancient Evenings. It offered an introduction to Mailer’s Ancient Evenings, another significant work after The Executioner’s Song. Zi Zhong also published an article, “Norman Mailer’s Ancient Evenings,” which offered a brief introduction to the Egyptian narrative.

The following two years, 1984-1985, once again witnessed the absence of Mailer from the Chinese critical world. Then, in 1986 two articles related to Mailer appeared. One is Xu Xin’s “Notes on the Image of Schlegel in Jewish Literature,” which examined the image of Schlegel in Mailer’s writings. The other is Zi Zhong’s “Mailer: His Life and Time by Peter Manso.” It was, as its title suggests, not an article devoted to the discussion of Mailer himself but an introductory review article on Peter Manso’s work on Mailer. This article introduced Mailer to Chinese readers.

Then again, in the years 1987-1989, Mailer disappeared from the Chinese critical world. But the year of 1988 saw the publication of the Chinese translation of four works by Mailer: The Naked and the Dead, The Executioner’s Song, Tough Guys Don’t Dance, and Marilyn: A Biography. The first was translated by Hui Cai and published by Shanghai Translations Press, the second by Huilin Zou, Hui Si and Hua Yang and published by Spring Wind Arts Press, the third by Gexin Fan and Yongqing Zang and published by The Spring Wind Arts Press, and the fourth by Junyi Liu and published by Yangtze River Press. The next year saw the publication of Ming Yu’s translation of An American Dream into Chinese by Spring Wind Arts Press.

From 1990 forward, things began to change greatly, and the 1990s witnessed the first flowering of Mailer criticism in China. In 1990, Yidong Zhang published in The Journal of Suihua Institute an article, “The Naked and the Dead and The Dawns Here Are Quiet: A Comparison,” which explored in detail the similarities between these two novels of World War II. In this year, the Chinese translation of The Armies of the Night by Shaozeng Ren was published by Translations Press.

In 1991, Suzhen Zhang published, “New Journalism: Origin, Growth, and Development,” in The Journal of Xuzhou Nornal University (Philosophy and Social Science Edition), where she placed Mailer in the context of New Journalism in America, focusing on The Armies of the Night.

In 1992, three articles on or related to Mailer were published. Xilin Cheng’s “Fiction and Fact: The Contemporariness of Post-War American Novel and Neo-Realism,” published in Foreign Literature Studies, discussed Mailer’s novels in the context of post-World War II American writings. Shaozeng Ren’s “The Linguistic Manifestations of the Context in Narrative Texts,” published in Foreign Languages (Also named The Journal of Shanghai International Studies University), made a linguistic study of Mailer’s The Armies of the Night by drawing upon Halliday’s theory of Functional Grammar, and thereby, explored the relationship between the text and the context. Yidai Feng published his “Harlot’s Ghost” in the Readings Magazine, introducing Mailer’s then new novel Harlot’s Ghost to Chinese readers.

In the years 1993–1994, Mailer again disappeared from the Chinese critical world, but 1995 saw the publication of four articles on or related to Mailer and his works. Lingfu Zeng’s “New Trends in the Development of Jewish American Literature,” published in Foreign Literature Review, examined Mailer’s writings in relation to Jewish American writing. Hua Shi’s “The Abnormality of Human Beings in Abnormal Environment: Notes on The Naked and the Dead,” published in Foreign Literature Studies, was a thematic study of Mailer’s first novel and as its title suggests, explored representations of humanity. In Readings, Yidai Feng published, “Oswald’s Tale: An American Mystery,” an introduction to Mailer’s then new work, Oswald’s Tale: An American Mystery. Dingshan Dong, in “Four Great American Writers of the Second World War,” published in Bo Lan Qun Shu, discussed Mailer with John Hersey, Herman Wouk, and Tom Jones.

In 1996, two scholarly articles were published on The Naked and the Dead. One is Yundi Wang’s “Existence, Nihility and Nature: Contemplations on the Questioning of Existence in The Naked and the Dead,” published in Journal of Hebei Normal Institute (Social Science Edition). As its title suggests, the article examined the theme of human condition represented in the novel. Tiechi Huang’s “Conflict between Natural Power and Mechanical Power: Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead” explored one theme of the novel: the conflict between natural power and mechanical power symbolized by Mount Anaka and the Army respectively and within the Army between General Cummings and Sergeant Croft and Lieutenant Hearn.

In 1997, Mailer did not appear in the Chinese critical world except in Foreign Litruratures Recent Developments in which Zhouzi Hai published his article, “Norman Mailer’s New Work The Gospel According to the Son,” which timely introduced The Gospel According to the Son to Chinese readers. Further, this year saw the republication of the Chinese translation of The Naked and the Dead.

In 1998, five articles on or related to Mailer and his works were published. Wei Sun’s “Norman Mailer on Picasso and the Phenomenon of Art in the 20^th Century,” published in The Journal of Qindao Education Institute, explored Mailer’s views of Picasso and of the development of the art in the twentieth century. Xilin Cheng’s “On the Non-fiction in Postwar America,” published in Contemporary Foreign Literature, studied Mailer and his writing in his relation to the non-fiction writing in America in the 1960s and 1970s. Xiaosong Pan’s “Collection of Mailer’s Writings in 50 Years,” published in Foreign Literatures Recent Developments, introduced Chinese readers to Mailer’s The Time of Our Time. Dingshan Dong’s “An Unique and Unusual History of America: Combinations of Fiction, Report, Contemplation and Reflection,” published in Bo Lan Qun Shu, also focused on The Time of Our Time, introducing Chinese readers once again to Mailer and the development of his literary career over fifty years from 1948 to 1998. In addition to these two citations, Foreign Literatures Recent Developments also provided a brief introduction to The Time of Our Time in its column of information on recent publications in literature. This year also saw the republication of the Chinese translation of The Armies of the Night.

The year to follow, however, saw little publication of Mailer criticism in China. And this neglect did not change significantly in 2000, in which there was only one article on Mailer. It was Huilin Zou’s “Gary Gilmore: Mailer’s Another ‘White Negro.’” The article, as its title suggests, explored the image of Gary Gilmore, the main figure in The Executioner’s Song, in connection with Mailer’s delineation of the “White Negro” in the 1957 essay by the same name. This year also saw the republication of the Chinese translation of The Executioner’s Song and one Master of Arts thesis on Mailer and his work: “Plant and Phantom: An Analysis of the Theme of The Naked and the Dead” by Honghua Yin from Hebei University.

The situation began to change in 2001, which saw the publication of four articles on or related to Mailer and his works. Yetao Li’s “On the Influence of New Journalism on Contemporary Chinese Documentary Literature,” published in Contemporary Literary Scene, mentioned Mailer’s The Armies of the Night and The Executioner’s Song. Hua Wen’s “‘The Naked and the Dead’ Wandering in Power and War,” published in Journal of PLA Art Institute, examined Mailer’s view of power in his first novel, The Naked and the Dead. Qingmei Du’s “American Novels of World War II in Different Periods: A Comparison,” published in Journal of Language and Literature, also explored The Naked and the Dead in its relation to other American novels of the Second World War. Dingshan Dong’s “The Norman Mailer Who Missed the Nobel Prize for Literature: A New Biographical Approach to the Complex Character of the Famous Writer,” published in The Writers, provided a survey of Mailer’s life and literary career as a major American writer. In addition, this year also saw the publication of the Chinese translation of The Naked and the Dead and An American Dream by different translators from those in 1988 and 1989.

The year 2002 saw the publication of five articles on or related to Mailer and his works and two translations of Mailer’s short stories, “The Able Man in Love” and “Maybe in the Coming Year.” Aizhu Guo’s “Norman Mailer: His Life and Writing,” published in Foreign Literature, was, as its title suggests, an introduction to Mailer’s life and literary career. Suzhen Zhang’s “The Call of Life: Mailer’s The Armies of the Night and The Executioner’s Song,” published in Foreign Literature Studies, investigated the theme of social criticism and the superb artistic techniques of these two works. Liang Chen’s “The Masochist Character in The Naked and the Dead,” published in Foreign Languages and Literatures, analyzed the mechanism of power and its influence on those who are in lower society—therefore in a masochist situation in Mailer’s first novel, The Naked and the Dead. Yutang Zhang’s “Existentialism in Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song,” published in Journal of Gansu Institute of Education by Media, was, as its title suggests, a study of the theme of existentialism in Mailer’s work. In his “The New Yorkers: History, People and Others,” published in Corners of Publication, Dingshan Dong also discussed Mailer in his relationship to The New Yorkers. In addition to these scholarly and semi-scholarly articles on or related to Mailer, Foreign Literature also published the translation of two short stories by Mailer: “The Able Man in Love” and “Maybe in the Coming Year” and thereby made Mailer more familiar to Chinese readers. In addition, this year also saw the publication of Xinmin Liu’s translation of The Deer Park into Chinese by Translations Press. And there was also one Master of Arts thesis on Mailer and his work: “Army as a Miniature of American Society: An Analysis of Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead” by Qinglan Dou from Liaoning Normal University.

The year of 2003 was an important year for Mailer criticism in China. In this year, five scholarly articles on Mailer and his works and one translation of an interview with Mailer were published. Hongli Gu’s “Biographical Narrative and the Hipster: On the Narrative Techniques and the Representation of Oswald in Norman Mailer’s Oswald’s Tale,” published in Contemporary Foreign Literature, explored the image of Oswald as a hipster by examining Oswald’s Tale: An American Mystery as a kind of biographical narrative, a narrative between history and fiction. Huilin Zou’s “Mailer’s Speculation and Pursuit of the Philosophy of Hip in His Writings,” published in Journal of Xuzhou Normal University (Philosophy and Social Science Edition), was a survey of Mailer’s “philosophy of Hip” demonstrated through his literary characters in his works. Hong Tang’s “The Theme of ‘American Existentialism’ in The Executioner’s Song,” published in Academic Exchanges, and “Norman Mailer’s Philosophy of ‘American Existentialism’ in His Works,” published in Study and Speculation, and Yanhua Zhao’s “Existence and Human Nature: A Thematic Interpretation of The Naked and the Dead,” published in Journal of Zaozhaung Two-year Normal College, were all concerned with Mailer’s existentialism. Further, Social Sciences Abroad Digest published Wei Chen’s translation of an interview with Mailer by Gerhard Spall, an editor of the German journal, The Mirror. In addition, there were two Master of Arts theses on or related to Mailer and his works and one PhD dissertation on Mailer and his works: “The Evolution of the Jewish Sense in American Jewish Novelists’ Fictions,” a thesis by Yan Liu from Nanjing Normal University, “On the Theme of The Naked and the Dead,” a thesis by Yingna Li from Heilongjiang University, and “A New Historicist and Cultural Materialist Study of Norman Mailer’s Works,” a dissertation by Hongli Gu from Xiamen University, which came to be published in book form one year later.

In 2004, seven articles on or related to Mailer and his works were published. Yafang Shi’s “Uncertainty as a Note of Modern Life: Contemporary American Writer Norman Mailer’s An American Dream,” published in Journal of Zhejiang Communist Party Institute, examined the theme of the uncertainty of existence in Mailer’s An American Dream. Another article by her, “The Cultural Context of The Naked and the Dead,” published in Foreign Literature Studies, investigated the reasons for the popularity of The Naked and the Dead by putting it into the cultural context of the time of its publication and afterwards, arguing that the novel’s timeliness and universalism made it popular with the reader immediately after its publication and in the years to follow. Yaqin Xing’s “Karma and Reincarnation: Contemplating Gilmore’s Choice of Death in The Executioner’s Song,” published in Journal of Ha’erbin Institute, explored the reasons for Gilmore’s choice for death rather than life in terms of karma and reincarnation. Xiaowen Ren’s “The Executioner’s Song in the Sad Age,” published in The Window of South Wind, was also concerned with The Executioner’s Song. Hongli Gu’s “Historical Truth and Literary Fiction: The Textuality of History in Norman Mailer’s Novels,” published in Foreign Literature, looked into the textuality of history represented in Mailer’s novels by focusing on his fictionalized presentation of President Jack Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. Kang Shi’s “American Corruption and Anti-corruption,” published in News Weekly, was a study of Mailer’s third novel, The Deer Park, arguing that the novel told a story of moral corruption. Hong Tang, in his “American Culture of the 1960s and New Journalism,” also gave some space to Mailer. Mention should be made that the first book-length study of Mailer and his works was published in this year, which was Hongli Gu’s A New Historicist and Cultural Materialist Study of Norman Mailer’s Works published by Xiamen University Press. The book, as its title suggests, was a comprehensive study of Mailer’s major works, both fiction and non-fiction, with New Historicism and Cultural Materialism as its theoretical framework.

In 2005, eight scholarly articles on Mailer and his works were published. Hongli Gu’s “The Carnival World of the Text: Intertextual Strategies in Norman Mailer’s Works,” published in Foreign Literature Studies, explored the textuality and multiplicity of history as represented in Mailer’s biographical works such as Marilyn: A Biography, Oswald’s Tale: An American Mystery and The Executioner’s Song. Her “Norman Mailer and the American Literary Tradition,” published in Foreign Languages and Literatures, made a survey of Mailer’s relationship with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville and Henry Adams and thereby his relationship with the American literary tradition. Her third article, “Strategies of Historical Fiction in Norman Mailer’s Non-fiction,” published in Foreign Literature, examined such narrative strategies as supertext and metafiction in his nonfiction works. Her fourth article published in this year, “A Tragic Song of the Hipster: A Re-reading of Norman Mailer’s Why Are We in Vietnam?,” published in Contemporary Foreign Literature, re-read Mailer’s Why Are We in Vietnam? from the perspective of his conception of the hipster that he first made in “The White Negro.” Fulin Xu’s “The Truth in War: The Naked and the Dead,” published in Journal of Lingling Institute, explored the relationship between humanity and war. Guangqin Li’s “On the Margin of the Trap: The Dilemma of Eitel’s Existence in The Deer Park,” published in Journal of Social Sciences of Jiamusi University, was a study of the condition of existence of Eitel, the protagonist of The Deer Park, in a society full of irrational restraints. Yafang Shi’s “The Authorial Absence in The Executioner’s Song,” published in Foreign Literature Studies, investigated the various narrative strategies in The Executioner’s Song from the perspective of authorial absence and thereby explored the significance of the shift between the author and the reader in terms of identity and function. Honghua Yin’s “A Note on the Theme of The Naked and the Dead,” published in Journal of Second Foreign Studies University of Beijing, looked into the conflict between bestiality and human ideal from the perspectives of the plot and the characterization in the novel. In addition, my own PhD dissertation on Mailer and his novels, “Individualism or Egalitarianism?: A Cultural Critique of Power and Morality in Norman Mailer’s Fiction,” also appeared in 2005.

The next year saw the publication of nine articles on or related to Mailer and his works. Qinglan Dou’s “The Double Meaning of ‘the Executioner’ in The Executioner’s Song,” published in Journal of Dalian Maritime University (Social Science Edition), explored the value of human dignity by examining the pilgrimage of Gary Gilmore. Her second article, “Nicole as Male Writer’s Tragic ‘Second Sex’: The Executioner’s Song and Norman Mailer’s Writing Consciousness,” published in Journal of Liaoning Instute of Engineering, analyzed Mailer’s writing consciousness which, to her, was a combination of male and female consciousness through an analysis of the female character, Nicole. Her third article, “Norman Mailer’s Masterpiece of Love,” published in Journal of Anshan Normal University, was also concerned with The Executioner’s Song. It was different from articles preceding it as it viewed the novel as Mailer’s masterpiece of love. Her fourth article, “Norman Mailer’s Artistic Techniques and Styles,” published in Journal of Liaoning Normal University (Social Science Edition), was, as its title suggests, a general survey of the artistic techniques and styles Mailer employed. Yingna Li’s “Conflicts in The Naked and the Dead,” published in Academic Exchange, explored the conflict between totalitarianism and individual will represented by General Cummings and Lieutenant Hearn respectively. Hua-en Ou’s “Disharmonies in The Naked and the Dead,” published in Journal of Hunan University of Science and Engineering, was also concerned with Mailer’s first novel. It was a detailed analysis of the three kinds of disharmony in the novel: between the officer and the soldier in the American Army, between America and the world, and between the individual and himself. Another article by him, “The Pursuit and Release of Power: Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead,” published in Journal of Shaoyang University (Social Science Edition), also focused on Mailer’s first novel and it mainly examined Mailer’s concern with power in his novel. In addition, Foreign Literatures Recent Developments published Haiqing Feng’s translation of an interview with Mailer two years ago. Translations published Xiufeng Qiao’s introduction to the American National Book Awards in 2005, in which Qiao made a short introduction to Mailer in relation to his having been awarded the Medal for Lifetime Achievement, presented by the National Book Award. This year also saw one Master of Arts thesis on Mailer and his work: “Surmounted the Perplexity and Discerned Wars: A Discussion of Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead” by Junzi Lvmei from Jilin University.

The year of 2007 was a sad year for Mailer’s readers, but the death of Mailer seemed to have made him draw more attention from critics. In this year, twelve articles on Mailer and his works were published. Qinglan Dou’s “Techniques of The Armies of the Night,” published in Journal of Dalian Maritime University (Social Science Edition), once again expressed her interest in Mailer’s artistic techniques, but this time she concentrated on only one work and focused mainly on his technique of New Journalism. Her second article, “Existentialism in The Naked and the Dead,” also published in Journal of Dalian Martime University (Social Science Edition), was, as its title suggests, an analysis of Mailer’s existentialist ideas in the novel. Existentialism was also a major concern in Changjiang Zhang’s “Existentialism in The Executioner’s Song,” which was published in Social Science Review. Two other articles also connected to The Naked and the Dead. Feiliang Fu and Shiwen Liu’s “The Beast and the Prophet: The Characters in The Naked and the Dead,” published in Journal of Leshan Teachers College, explored the bestiality and rationality of human beings as demonstrated in the different characters in the novel. Shuli Sun’s “The Conflict between Power and Humanity: Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead,” published in Journal of Hotan Teachers College, explored the conflicting relationship between war and human nature in the novel. Additionally, two articles also were concerned with The Armies of the Night. Jun Zhong’s “Notes on The Armies of the Night,” published in Modern Enterprise Education, viewed Mailer’s work as a masterpiece of New Journalism and analyzed in detail the use of the technique of New Journalism. Hui Wang’s “The Artistic Tension of a Dual Text: The Narrative Ethics of Norman Mailer’s The Armies of the Night,” published in Foreign Literature Studies, was a good critical article on Mailer’s work. It investigated Mailer’s countercultural narrative ethics through an exploration of his unconventional views of fiction and journalism demonstrated in the tension between “the novel as history” and “the history as novel” in The Armies of the Night. The publication of The Castle in the Forest also drew some attention from critics. Two articles were published on this novel. In Foreign Literatures Recent Developments, Yaqin Zuo published an article, “Norman Mailer Published a New Book The Castle in the Forest,” which made a brief introduction to Mailer’s last novel. Success Magazine published an article, “Who Wrote Down the Evil DNA,” which explored the image of Hitler as the agent of the Devil in The Castle in the Forest. My own article, “Norman Mailer’s View of Gender,” published in Journal of Sichuan International Studies University, was an investigation of Mailer’s view of gender through a close reading of the gender relations in his novels. The death of Mailer on November 10, 2007 was really very sad news, and two articles reported the news to Chinese readers. One was Selie Yi’s “Mailer Passed Away,” published in Southern People Weekly; the other was Lin Xia’s “The Last American Literary Militant Fell,” published in Global People. In addition, this year also saw the publication of the second book-length study of Mailer’s works. It was my own Individualism or Egalitarianism?: A Cultural Critique of Power and Morality in Norman Mailer’s Fiction published by Lanzhou University Press. Different from Hongli Gu’s book published three years earlier, my work focused exclusively on Mailer’s novels: The Naked and the Dead, Barbary Shore, The Deer Park, An American Dream, Why Are We in Vietnam?, The Executioner’s Song, Tough Guys Don’t Dance, Harlot’s Ghost, and The Gospel According to the Son and was a comprehensive study of Mailer’s view of power in relation to morality and his relationship with American society as shown in these novels. This year also saw one Master of Arts thesis on Mailer: “Conflict between the Beast and the Seer in Man: An Analysis of Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead” by Yongsheng Wu from Ha’erbin University of Engineering.

In 2008, only six articles were published on Mailer’s individual works. Four were concerned with The Naked and the Dead, one with An American Dream, and one with The Castle in the Forest. Hua-en Ou’s “Assault Instinct and Humanity Alienation: Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead,” published in Foreign Literature Studies, explored the alienation of humanity caused by human desire for power, the relationship between husband and wife, and the assault of egoists and the influence of assault instinct on the alienation of humanity. Min Wang’s “The Struggle between Humanity and Bestiality: Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead,” published in Journal of Luoyang Normal University, was an investigation of two conflicting aspects of human nature in the novel—humanity and bestiality. Bingwei Ding’s “The View of a Hero and the Artistic Techniques of The Naked and the Dead,” published in Fudan Forum on Foreign Langauges and Literature, examined Mailer’s view of a hero and relevant historical development by looking into his modernist representation and subversion of history in the novel. Yanbin Wang and Ying Wei’s “Norman Mailer’s Theme and Totalitarianism Complex,” published in Journal of Northeast Normal University (Philosophy and Social Science), explored one theme of the novel: War helped and accelerated the growth and spread of totalitarianism in America. Changjiang Zhang’s “Rojack: Norman Mailer’s Hipster,” published in Journal of Yunan Finance and Economics (Social Science Edition), was an analysis of the image of Rojack as a hipster. Yafang Shi’s “The Castle in the Forest: A New Historicist Text,” published in English and American Literary Studies, as its title suggests, took a new historicist approach to Mailer’s last novel and analyzed its intertextual and multi-dimensional features. In addition, there were three Master of Arts theses on Mailer and his works in this year: “Absurdity and Alienation: An Existential Interpretation of the Theme in The Naked and the Dead” by Bin Tang from South China University, “Reverting to Oneself under the Rebellious Stance: An Analysis of Mailer’s Existentialism from His Works and Personality” by Fang Liu from Shandong Normal University, and “The Fictionality of History: An Analysis of Norman Mailer’s Nonfiction Works” by Qingzheng Liu from Guangxi Normal University.

In 2009, only four articles on or related to Mailer and his works were published. Tao Zhang’s “On Norman Mailer’s Theory of ‘White Negro’,” published in Journal of Jinan University (Social Science Edition), investigated the philosophical, social and theological foundations of Mailer’s theory of “the White Negro” and its theoretical ideas. Zhang’s PhD dissertation, “On the Existentialism of Norman Mailer and the Themes of His Early Novels,” also appeared in this year. Dandan Bao’s “Discretion and Intersection: The Narrative Features of The Naked and the Dead,” published in Journal of Zhenjiang College, as its title suggests, explored narrative techniques of discretion and intersection. Yutang Zhang and Jingqi Hu’s “Postwar American Nonfiction,” published in Journal of Tianshui Normal University, discussed Mailer’s The Armies of the Night in its relation to postwar American nonfiction. My own article, “Norman Mailer’s Motivation of Writing and the Theme of His Fiction,” published in Contemporary Foreign Literature, was a study of Mailer’s motivation of novel writing and the common thematic concerns of his novels from The Naked and the Dead through Barbary Shore, The Deer Park, An American Dream, Why Are We in Vietnam?, The Executioner’s Song and Tough Guys Don’t Dance to Harlot’s Ghost. In addition, this year also saw the publication of Shaoyu Jin’s translation of Mailer’s last novel, The Castle in the Forest into Chinese by Shanghai Translation Press.

In 2010, Mailer criticism in China was even more dissatisfying: only two articles on Mailer and his works were published. One was Guangfang Zhao’s “Black Humor in The Naked and the Dead,” published in Theory Horizon. It was, as its title suggests, an exploration of the black humor as a thematic concern and an artistic technique in the novel. The other publication was Haocheng Yang’s “Radical yet Conservative Norman Mailer,” published in Journal of School of Chinese Language and Culture Nanjing Normal University. It investigated Mailer’s conservatism in his radical ideas. There was also one Master of Arts thesis on Mailer and his work: “Conflicts in The Naked and the Dead” by Fang Nan from Hebei Normal University.

Happily, in 2011, the situation changed significantly. Six articles on Mailer and his works were published. Of these articles, two were concerned with The Naked and the Dead, one with An American Dream, one with The Executioner’s Song, one with “The White Negro” and one with the situation of the Mailer criticism in China. Dandan Bao’s “Flower Shadow in the Thorns: The Female Group in The Naked and the Dead,” published in Journal of Zhenjiang College, explored Mailer’s female characters in male-dominated society. Ruifang Bian and Zhounian Sun’s “Norman Mailer’s Jewish Consciousness in The Naked and the Dead,” published in Journal of Taiyuan Urban Vocational College, analyzed Mailer’s Jewish consciousness and Jewish stand in the novel. Yingjun Xin’s “Existentialism in Modern Life in An American Dream,” published in The Guide of Science and Education, was, as its title suggests, an analysis of the existential features of modern life demonstrated in An American Dream. Fen Zhang’s “The Objects of The Executioner’s Song,” published in Journal of Huaihai Institute of Technology (Social Science Edition), was a thematic study of The Executioner’s Song from the perspectives of his attitude toward the death penalty and Gary Gilmore as a death convict. Haocheng Yang’s “Spiritual Constitution and Writing Motivation in ‘The White Negro,’” published in Contemporary Foreign Literature, made an investigation of Mailer’s real motivation of writing the essay by examining its spiritual constitution. Meihua Xu’s “The Present Situation and Tendency of the Study of Norman Mailer in China in the New Period,” published in Journal of Jixi University, was a summary survey of the major achievements of Mailer criticism in China. There were also three Master of Arts theses on Mailer and his works: “The Complexity of Human Nature in The Naked and the Dead in View of Sartre’s Existentialism” by Jin-sheng Wang from Zhejiang University, “Research of Norman Mailer’s Nonfiction Novels” by Fuyan Xue from Shandong University, and “Conflict between Power and Freedom: The Existence Dilemma of Norman Mailer’s Characters” by Ruifang Bian from Jiangnan University.

In 2012, six articles were published on Mailer’s individual works. Of these articles, two were concerned with Why Are We in Vietnam?, one with The Naked and the Dead, one with Barbary Shore, one with An American Dream, and one with The Executioner’s Song. Wenping Gan’s “A Cultural, Political and Literary Proposition: Norman Mailer’s Why Are We in Vietnam?,” published in Journal of Xidian University (Social Science Edition), explored the cultural, political and literary meanings of Mailer’s Why Are We in Vietnam?. Songtao Yin and Jie Liu’s “Norman Mailer: Novel and Capital,” published in Translations, examined Why Are We in Vietnam? and other novels to reveal the relationship between literary study and cultural study, which is, to them are like that between husband and wife. Shuihe Ji and Na Chen’s “Jewish Identity in Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead,” published in Foreign Literature Studies, explored three kinds of Jewish consciousness in the novel: Jewish consciousness with Jewish identity, non-Jewish consciousness with Jewish identity, and Jewish consciousness with non-Jewish identity. Meihua Xu’s “A Reading of Norman Mailer’s Barbary Shore from the Perspective of Family Space,” published in Masterpieces Review, is a feminist study of Guinevere, whose repressed life and rebellion, she argued, shows that it was very difficult for females to pursue their selfhood in the male-dominated society. Zhengyan Xiao’s “A Hipster in Alienation: Rojack’s Existentialism in An American Dream,” published in Journal of Sichuan College of Education, examined the image of Rojack as a hipster by drawing upon Mailer’s idea of the hipster in “The White Negro.” Jiangcai Zhang’s “Paradox between Fiction and History: A Re-reading of Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song,” published in Journal of Xianyang Normal University, re-read The Executioner’s Song from a new historicist perspective, arguing that Mailer consciously tried to subvert the clear distinction between fiction and history but meanwhile fell into a paradox between fiction and history.

Time goes on and more articles on Mailer and his works will be published in China. We cannot say with certainty how many articles will be published on Mailer and his works every year in China, but of one thing we can be certain: more and more Chinese readers and critics will pay more attention to Mailer and his works, and more and more in-depth studies of Mailer’s works will appear in the Chinese critical world, and many more works by Mailer will be translated into Chinese and published in China (and elsewhere) in the years to come.