LOTUS, OR THE FAILURE OF A LIFE: AFFECTIVE FRAGMENTATION AND ACTANTIAL DYNAMICS IN SU TONG’S NARRATIVE

Abstract

This study examines the affective development of Lotus, the protagonist of Su Tong’s novella, through the dual lens of her interpersonal relationships and her emotional interiority. By adopting an actantial perspective, the analysis explores how Lotus’s subjectivity is progressively shaped, constrained, and ultimately fractured within the social order of the household. The narrative is divided into three distinct phases, each corresponding to a transformation in Lotus’s affective state and her position within the relational network that defines her existence. The First Part traces her initial integration into the household and the emergence of her expectations and strategies of adaptation; the Second Part examines the destabilization of these expectations during an anomalous winter marked by tension, rivalry, and psychological disintegration; and the Third Part follows the irreversible collapse of her emotional and existential coherence. By combining close textual analysis with attention to narrative structure, this study argues that Lotus’s trajectory constitutes not merely a personal tragedy but a systematic “failure of a life,” shaped by the interplay of desire, power, and confinement. The analysis is based primarily on Michael S. Duke’s English translation Raise the Red Lantern: Three Novellas (2000), with occasional reference to the original Chinese text.