Diary of a Madman

E774384

"Diary of a Madman" is a landmark 1918 short story by Lu Xun that pioneered modern Chinese vernacular fiction and powerfully critiques feudal society through the paranoid perspective of its mad narrator.

Try in SPARQL Jump to: Surface forms Statements Referenced by

Observed surface forms (1)

Surface form Occurrences
Lu Xun’s “Diary of a Madman” 1

Statements (48)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Chinese literary work
modern Chinese vernacular fiction
short story
adaptedAs films
stage plays
television productions
author Lu Xun NERFINISHED
canonicalStatus classic of modern Chinese literature
centralTheme cannibalism as social metaphor
confucian ethics as cannibalistic
critique of feudal society
oppression of the individual
paranoia
comparedTo Nikolai Gogol’s Diary of a Madman NERFINISHED
countryOfOrigin China
criticizes Chinese feudal ethics
traditional Confucian family system
firstPublishedAs Kuangren Riji NERFINISHED
firstPublishedIn New Youth NERFINISHED
genre psychological fiction
social criticism
hasEnglishTitle Diary of a Madman NERFINISHED
hasFrameNarrative editor who presents the diary
hasPinyinTitle Kuángrén Rìjì NERFINISHED
includedIn Lu Xun’s collection Call to Arms NERFINISHED
influenced Chinese social realist literature
later Chinese modernist writers
literaryPeriod modern Chinese literature
literarySignificance landmark of May Fourth literature
pioneering work of modern Chinese vernacular fiction
movement May Fourth literature NERFINISHED
New Culture Movement NERFINISHED
narrativePerspective first-person narration
narrator madman
originalLanguage Chinese
portrays breakdown of sanity under social pressure
collective complicity in oppression
protagonistRelationToSociety alienated intellectual
publicationYear 1918
setting a traditional Chinese village
structure framed by an editor’s preface
studiedIn Chinese literature curricula worldwide
symbol cannibalism
“Eat people” characters in classical texts
timePeriodOfSetting late Qing and early Republican China
titleInChineseCharacters 狂人日记 NERFINISHED
writingStyle diary form
vernacular Chinese

Referenced by (3)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

La Jeunesse notableWorkPublished Diary of a Madman
this entity surface form: Lu Xun’s “Diary of a Madman”
Lu Xun notableWork Diary of a Madman
Poetic notableSong Diary of a Madman