ABSTRACT
In this article, I propose to examine the new writings of history in contemporary Taiwanese literature, marked by what Fan Ming-ju calls a “post-nativist” (後鄉土) aesthetics, in reference to the so-called Taiwanese “nativist” literature of the 1970s. In comparison with the historical novels of their predecessors, Fan notes among the post-nativist novelists the preeminence of the nonhuman world and the importance given to environmental issues. This chapter focuses on the fictional and nonfictional works by Wu Ming-yi 吳明益 (1971–). I am particularly interested in how landscape and nonhumans (animals, plants but also deities) are no longer just simple metaphors of the human condition, but rather full-fledged characters and victims just like the humans of the wars and the processes of colonization. Thus, I argue that the historical writing of the “post-nativist” authors like Wu Ming-yi is more of a desire to write the history of a place – in its multiple dimensions – than the history of a people.
