Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

“A Wretched Idealist”: Tragedy In “Love Must Not Be Forgotten”, Daijuan Gao

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Since its publication in 1979 and the ensuing controversy it evoked about the morality of an extramarital love affair (albeit platonic), Zhang Jie’s short story, “Love Must Not Be Forgotten” has continued to captivate readers and literary scholars. While the values of Zhang’s story, with its challenges to traditional ethics and its provocation of female consciousness, have been acknowledged by critics and commentators, examination of the aesthetics of the story’s tragic effect has thus far remained marginal. “Love” engendered pity and fear in readers, particularly during the time following the Cultural Revolution when the lives of Chinese people were firmly …