Redefining Anthropos and Life. A Phenomenological Reading of Ximen Nao’s Post-Human Journey Towards Enlightenment in Mo Yan’s Life and Death are Wearing Me Out

This study is a phenomenological reading of Mo Yan’s Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out. It sheds light on the author’s personal “reinvention” of sheng 生(life) – a concept apparently akin to that of zoe (bare/animal life). By adopting the perspective of the protagonist, Ximen Animal, not only is the centrality of the rational and political Anthropos challenged, but life in its manifold aspects is also redefined. Such aspects are explored through Ximen Animal’s reincarnations, which are less narrative expedients to represent History, personal histories and personal traumas, than they are necessary steps toward what may be understood as a lay form of “enlightenment.” Each reincarnation, in fact, is represented as a transient “stage of emotional awakening” during which Ximen Animal learns compassion – described less as a religious sentiment than as a phenomenological “poetics of affect.” Ximen Animal’s emotions toward all living creatures prompts him to redefine pre-established notions of self, kinship bonds, ethical values, love, worldly success and, finally, art. What this novel offers its readers is a hope: the coming of a new millennium in which all living beings will be able to relate to anthropos and life in a radically different way.