Can Xue: the poetics of anti-aesthetics

Can Xue is a representative of Chinese women's literature of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Her works are one of the most interesting literary phenomena. The author discusses the poetics of the “anti-aesthetics” in Can Xue’s works, based on the violation of classical aesthetic norms. To achieve a new aesthetic impact, Can Xue employs such artistic means as fantasy, metaphor, symbol, synesthesia in a new way. Possessing a rich and unbridled imagination, the writer strives to depict something that exists “in the zone of non-existence.” Besides, Can Xue creates anti-aesthetic, ugly, incomprehensible, and metaphorical images, invents illogical dialogues, refers to the phenomena of the interweaving of dreams and reality, peeping, etc. It is concluded that Can Xue breaks the frame of traditional aesthetic, seeks ugly, irrational, and unacceptable to popular standards of beauty. But despite all the ugliness, she draws attention to the hidden depths of human consciousness and soul, shows another truth of life. An analysis of the poetics of Can Xue allows a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the writings of Chinese authors of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.