Li Er's Early Narrative Works: a View of the Existential Condition of the Chinese Intellectual of the Time

An author still relatively little known outside China, albeit highly successful in some foreign countries, Li Er 李洱 represents one of the main exponents of the current commonly referred to as xinshengdai 新生代, “new generation”. Starting from a general illustration of the salient features of the Chinese literary landscape of the ‘90s, the present investigation focuses more particularly on the early production of this author, with the specific aim of identifying from his writings the figure of the Chinese intellectual of that specific historical context. It will, thus, be seen how this figure emerges, in line with the socio-political and cultural transformations of the time, as a “marginal” individual, socially “useless” and privately no master of his own existence, in stark contrast to the role traditionally assigned to him even in the literature of the preceding decade.