Fictional Authors, Imaginary Audiences: Modern Chinese Literature in the Twentieth Century. Bonnie S. McDougall (original) (raw)

Contested Modernities in Chinese Literature

2005

Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Contested modernities in Chinese literature / Charles A. Laughlin, editor. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.

EALC 352g Chinese Literature and Culture: Modern Chinese Literature in Comparative Perspective

Scope of the Course: This course is an analysis of the changing literary and cultural patterns in modern and contemporary China. By engaging in close analyses of fiction, poetry, drama and literary thought from the late Qing period to the present, we will trace the changes that have occurred in China beginning in the late 19 th century, throughout the 20 th century and into the 21 st century. The course sheds light on various transforming phases in which the influx of Western thought merges with persisting classical Chinese aesthetics to mold the form and content of modern Chinese literature, especially in fiction and poetry. The class will cover the socialist process in China since 1949 by focusing on key cultural-political movements, leading to the emergence of dissident writers. Simultaneously, the class will impose a genuine emphasis on the continuity of diverging literary practices in Taiwan where modernism is conspicuously and actively attended. We will also explore the unique situation of Hong Kong literature

“Writing Chinese Literary History: A Tweet for Sore Eyes” _Chinese Literature Today_ 3.1&2 (2013): 165-175.

We write literary history for high stakes. Our methods may influence evolving understandings of our subject: what counts as "literature," who owns it, how it functions, and how it may-or may not-pass on to new audiences. Because concerns about attracting new constituencies dovetail with fears about the survival of literature as a discipline and about the future of the humanities in higher education, I've been contemplating the conundrum of writing for diverse readerships. Through a little case study-my tiny trade book just published last year-I'll thus address questions about literary boundaries, including historical and national boundaries, and about interpretive frameworks. The desire to have an audience motivated me to write a short trade book on Chinese literature (from antiquity to the present) for a prominent series. Although I feared that doing so would require uncomfortable intellectual compromises, a trade book offered the prospect of reaching a large number of readers who might go on to read more. For the VSI series, as Oxford University Press calls its Very Short Introductions Series, has sold over five million copies.

A History of Chinese Literature

The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, edited by Victor H. Mair. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. Pp. xx + 1342. $78 (hardbound). It is difficult enough to write the history of a national literature where this history is relatively short, as in Russian or American literature. The problem becomes exponentially larger with a national literature that spans three millennia, and, measured by sheer volume of text, might well be larger than all other national literatures combined. Yet writing a history of Chinese literature is not impossible. Over the last century, a number of efforts have been made in various languages: many in Chinese, a good number in Japanese, and about twenty in European languages, including a few in English (none of which are mentioned in the book under review). Writing yet another history of Chinese literature has to take this fact into account because each new such history is built-not always consciously-on previous efforts. To a greater extent than is sometimes acknowledged, our own limitations are inherited. In some particular instances we might be successful in transcending this heritage; but for the larger part, we remain confined to it. Each new history of literature inevitably joins the process of canonizing, anthologizing, and tradition-making that is, to no small extent, the very subject under study. Thus, the conventional version of Chinese literary history that matches particular genres with particular dynasties-Han fu ,i, Tang shi * , Song ci *I-J, Yuan quiP , Ming-Qing xiaoshuo KAV /J\TR-is the direct result of such history-cum-canonization. This scheme simultaneously mirrors and confirms the prevalent research interests in Chinese literature, perpetuating the limitations of past inquiry as expectations for future work. Once accepted in a scholarly community, the reproduction of the conventional version reigns as a matter of convenience for all. As the editor of The Columbia History of Chinese Literature (hereafter: CHCL), Victor H. Mair submits that his volume transcends such limitations. In his own characteristic words, offered in the "Prolegomenon" (pp. xi-xiii) and "Preface" (xv-xviii), he declares that his history includes "the latest findings of critical scholarship" (p. xii). It is a work where "the history of Chinese literature is seen through entirely new prisms that transcend both time and genre" (p. xii). It is a volume packed "with as much basic information as possible" (p.xv) and built upon "rigorous marshalling of evidence" (p. xvi). It is also a history that "touches on such matters as the fuzzy interface between ?Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 26 (2004)

Contentious Canonicity: A Case Study of Three Contemporary Chinese Writers

2022

The publication of recent anthologies of modern Chinese literature, such as Joseph S. M. Lau and Howard Goldblatt’s The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature (2007) and Yunte Huang’s The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature (2017), alongside anthologies canonising key Chinese authors of the twentieth century, has revived debates on the current state of the Chinese literary canon. This proposal engages with the literary careers of Mo Yan, Ma Jian and Yan Lianke: three contemporary Chinese writers whose collective works challenge the boundaries between literature and history in contemporary Chinese literature. The dynamic of each author’s relationship with the Chinese censorship apparatus is considered alongside analysis of their respective inclusion (or exclusion) from the Chinese literary canon. As writers whose collective work crosses the boundaries of what is considered suitable for public consumption in China, Mo Yan, Ma Jian and Yan Lianke each exemplify a different ability to publish their work within Mainland China, whilst their work is simultaneously disseminated, analysed and categorised into Western scholars’ imaginings of the Chinese literary corpus. The context of this investigation is further developed by a case study of the publication of The Routledge Companion to Yan Lianke: the first English-language volume on Yan which, with an Introduction by Yan Lianke himself, acts as a canonising text and authoritative resource for students and scholars looking to understand Yan’s works from both his own perspective, and those of leading critics. By exploring the life cycle of the volume and analysing the editorial process of assembling a canonising volume in collaboration with its central author, this study thus considers the transcultural reception of contemporary Chinese authors and the role which the publication of literary anthologies and criticism in the West has in the construction of a contentious Chinese literary canon.