As a tool of inquiry, the identities building task aims to analyse the way in which language is used to enact particular identities, whether that be to the speaker of the text, or in attribution to others (Gee, 2014, p.33). In combination with the
113 situated meanings TOI, this section seeks to demonstrate how and through what linguistic devices identity is being constructed within the works of fiction. From this, one can glean vital information on social positioning and underlying cultural values that contribute to the figured world of the piece (these effects of these contributions are discussed in chapter 5). Drawing upon data extracted from the microfiction selection and focusing again at language at the level of the sentence, I begin with an analysis of how identity is constructed through first person narratives, before turning my attention to the way in which Chinese routinely ascribes identity through context, and the implications of identity through omission in respect of sexuality, building a picture of how animators use language to enact facets of their own identities, or to attribute identity to others.
4.4.1 Microfiction in the 1
stPerson
In terms of their construction, the micronovels within the collection fall broadly into either first person or third person narratives (achieved either through direct speech or narrative description), with direct first-person narratives accounting for 12.5% of the sample. Micronovel A002 (see p.295) provides us with the chronology of a life-long relationship between two individuals which is ultimately ended (or at least interrupted) by social compunction to marry someone of the opposing gender. As the story has been tagged as danmei (耽微, slash) within the Weibo forums, so a reader might be expected to deduce that wo (我, I) refers to a male voice—however, if the piece is presented in isolation from this contextual setting, then the gender to which the first-person pronoun refers is less clear. The piece comprises a first-person narrative of a personal history. A secondary male character is discussed, but this person’s opinion and/or voice is not portrayed, either by the animator or by the narrator. As such, there are no real ‘truths’ to contest within the piece, as the reader is presented with an unverifiable account of a
114 relationship. It is only at the end of the piece that the reader becomes certain that wo refers to a male-identified character, with the revelation of his role as the bridegroom. However, an important implication in having the story specifically tagged as danmei on Weibo is that one can expect the story to share similarities with that genre, and therefore to have been written with a particular audience in mind. As a conversation progresses, Gee (2011 p. 104) states that participants continually revise their situated meanings; however, in a brief piece such as this, there is limited scope to observe this. It is therefore left to the consumer to muse upon the identity of the narrative voice, into which several factors come into play. Does, for instance, the consumer consider the narrative voice to be that of the animator of the piece? If so, does the consumer presume that the animator is male? Given the body of previous research into the consumption of BL fiction, there is a high probability that both producer and consumer may be female (Akatsuka, 2008; Isola, 2008; Pagliassotti, 2008; Feng, 2009), so does this have any bearing on how a consumer would relate to narratives told in the first person? These issues influence not only on the situated meanings within the text, but also the figured world in which the text resides. These issues, along with the issue of female representation within queer- themed microfiction, will be developed further in chapters 5 and 6.
4.4.2 Identity through implication and omission
In contrast to my previously cited examples, micronovel A023 (see p.306) achieves a first-person narrative through omission of the pronoun wo ( 我 , I), choosing instead to give reference to the identity of the speaking voice solely through opposition to the explicit identity of the other party—marked with a third person singular pronoun, ta (他, he). Thus, the identity of the speaker is implicit, yet is not a barrier to an understanding of the text. A similar construction is observed at the opening of Micronovel A029 (see p.308), which begins 喜欢他五年了 [I liked him for 5
115 years], without giving direct reference to the person who is doing the liking. Later in the story, the reader can deduce that the missing pronoun is wo, as the story continues in a first-person narrative. This policy of omitting personal pronouns is also seen in the brief conversational exchange that constitutes micronovel A027 (see p.308):
“哥，听说大学里有很多男男相恋的例子啊。” “是的啊，每天晚上都被上铺那 两个摇得睡不着觉。” “Brother, [I] heard there are many instances of love between men in universities.” “Yeah, every night [I] couldn't sleep due to the shaking from those two on the upper bunk.”
Here again, both parties omit first person pronoun markers referring to their own identity. These constructions are contextually acceptable and occur frequently in Mandarin, yet cannot be translated into English without introducing a personal pronoun or another identifier. Therefore, the situated meaning in these cases is located outside of the sentence’s constituent words.
4.4.3 Identity labels: the situated meaning of tongzhi
Some examples of microfiction contain further markers of identity which require a degree of cultural and social understanding. In micronovel A023 (see p.306), the narrator makes reference to finding a ‘comrade novel’ in his friend’s bag (那天偶然从他包里翻出了一本同志小说 That day, by chance, [I] found a gay novel in his bag). To understand the significance of this discovery, the reader must here not take the words to mean simply ‘comrade’, but must appreciate the re-appropriation of the word tongzhi that has taken place over recent years as a common slang term for ‘gay’ (Wong, 2005), Whereas in the Maoist era (1949-1976), tongzhiwas a politicized form of address used to replace honorific titles (Pan & Kádár, 2011, p.78), to a Post-
116 Reform106 audience, the word has gained a quite different shade of meaning, the use
of which must be inferred from the contextual framework of the sentence in which the word appears. Such inference can be made also from the omission of a word; within the same text, the narrator says that he can’t be sure if his friend “is or not” (但不知他是不是
)
, avoiding vocalization of any word for gay or homosexual, but leaving its meaning clear through contextual implication. This omission also reinforces issues of power, agency and distribution of privilege—continued in 4.5 on p.116—as thenarrator does not wish, either through embarrassment or his own internalized homophobia to give a name to their shared state of being. The reader of the story is thus presumed by the animator to appreciate that same-sex intimacy within this context is politically and culturally problematic. These examples therefore demonstrate how the rendering of identity within these stories is dependent upon the situated meaning of the words (or silences) used in their construction, as without such contextual clues, meaning becomes obfuscated.