Faculty Introduction for “The Metamorphosis of Nora”

Lanxin is a thinker, quiet and unassuming yet with a passion for Nietzsche’s philosophy not often seen among today’s university students. So I am not surprised that in brainstorming ideas for her Perspectives on the Humanities final project, which asked students to extend the study of East-West cultural relations into the modern period by exploring a case of literary exchange like the exhibit cases already discussed in class, Lanxin decided to tell a complex story whose central figure is arguably modern China’s most Nietzschesque writer, Lu Xun. 

For a sharp critic, Lanxin’s essay may seem overly ambitious, dividing the reader’s attention between two or three major topics that it attempts to cover simultaneously: the laws and dynamics of cultural transmission, the reception of Ibsenism in early 20th-century China, Lu Xun’s (and to a lesser extent, Hu Shi’s) reflections on the liberation of women in a modernizing society. But, it is precisely this rich mixture, as you shall see, that distinguishes this essay. No matter whether you like her philosophizing, it is undeniable that she has done a beautiful job of analyzing her well-selected sources.

Read “The Metamorphosis of Nora” here.

Lin Chen, Lecturer in the Writing Program