Tra letteratura e politica. L’Incidente di Gaoxiong e la letteratura carceraria a Taiwan tra la fine degli anni Settanta e l’inizio degli anni Ottanta

In the recent history of Taiwan, the Formosa Incident (also known as Gaoxiong Incident) is generally regarded as one of the pivotal event that led to the process of democratization of the island. On 10 December 1979 an unauthorized demonstration, organized by opponents of the KMT government, took place in the city of Gaoxiong for the celebration of the Human Right Day. The protest ended up with clashes among demonstrators and the KMT military police, and many of the opposition leaders had been eventually arrested. This event and its aftermath left a deep impression on the Taiwanese society as well as on the literary field. In the context of the socalled prison literature (yuzhong wenxue), the Formosa Incident has been a source of inspiration for both writers and lawmakers directly involved with those circumstances. With a main focus on the literary field, it will be pointed out the outmost relevance of Formosa Incident’s related works by Yang Qingchu, Wang Tuo and Shi Mingzheng. Apart from the clear contribution of their writings, it will be furthermore examined the way those works influenced the evolution of their literary style, the significance they have in the authors’ main output as well as their relevance in the history of contemporary Taiwanese literature.