Taiwan Literature: A Minoritizing Project

Inspired by Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of minor literature, this paper seeks a viable perspective of understanding Taiwan literature in the transnational/global context. As it is well known, minor literature does not specify any particular type of literature or indicate any literature produced by specific groups; rather, it designates an internal linguistic variation or transformation, a form of becoming that is associated with social change and a people-to-come. Taiwan literature, Lai He as a case in point, whose establishment replies mostly on its linguistic experiments on Mandarin and whose accomplishment immediately forms solidarity within its community, provides a perfect example for minor literature. However, to draw analogies between the two does not intend to testify to the existence of a minor literature; rather, it proposes to look into a local literature through the lens of the minor, exploring how it can become a mode of writing and existence for the dominated people. It argues that the minor as a perspective may shed light on the understanding of a literature of the dominated beyond linguistic, ethnic, national and cultural boundaries, especially in the flux of transnational/global flows.