Crazy literature

Abstract In this paper, we investigate crazy literature, a newly emerged genre on Chinese Internet in which posters portray themselves as being mentally instable or, simply, insane. Based on data collected from the Internet and findings from a survey of college students, we argue that the image created by crazy literature is best captured by the notion of mock self-impoliteness. That is, although the image of insanity is damaging to the self-face of the poster, the impolite self-image is a persona, not the real image, motivated by transactional effectiveness. In addition, crazy literature helps the blogger to appear humorous, to express their helplessness in vulnerable situations, and to gain a sense of belonging. Our paper, therefore, contributes to the pragmatics literature by drawing scholars’ attention to a (possibly) hitherto non-existent type of language use, offering an analysis of the genre that is innovative, and demonstrating a need for investigating Internet pragmatics seriously.