Grotesque humour and undignified Life in Yu Hua’s novels

Yu Hua’s novels, especially "To Live" (活着) und "Brothers" (兄弟), are characterized by their preference for grotesque scenes in which protagonists face situations of humiliation and degradation. In "Brothers", the protagonist Song Gang has to undergo a surgery and becomes provided with female breasts, in order to promote an ointment for breast augmentation. According to Mikhail Bakhtin, the deformation of the human body is typical for grotesque humor (as can be shown in Rabelais). Bakthin's description of grotesque humor, however, reveals a certain affinity towards totalitarian politics, and this is certainly true also for Yu Hua. In his novels, grotesque Humor is associated with a political situation in which human dignity is constantly getting undermined. As Yan Lianke puts it, living in modern china is categorically "without dignity": This statement is confirmed in Yu Hua’s novels. The texts deal with the protagonists’ search for dignity, and at the same time they explore the possibility of critical writing under conditions of political control.