Social Drama and Construction of the Ah Q Discourse

This article examines the relationship between narrative and discourse through application of Victor Turner’s theory of social dramas to Lu Xun’s A Q zhengzhuan (The true story of Ah Q). Turner’s four-phase model is expanded to a fifth phase of temporal discursive reflexivity as Ah Q’s dramas are reinterpreted and reperformed in stage adaptations and literary derivatives (progeny novels) over eight decades. Foregrounded by Turner’s model, such discursive reperformances yield a highly effective reading strategy which integrates the elements of story and discourse, and thus bridges the gap between fictional literary events and the “real” meaning of events. Ah Q characteristics are reified in the process of constructing literary and social meaning as the progeny works humorously, satirically, and scathingly challenge contemporary readings of social and political history.