Monograph: CHINESE IMAGINARY IN OTHER LITERATURES: INSPIRATION, APPROPRIATION AND INTERTEXTUALITY (original) (raw)

2015, 452ºF. Journal of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature

This spring, the star exhibition at the MET Museum in New York, titled China: Through the Looking Glass, has shown haute couture of Chinese inspiration by Dior, Yves Saint Laurent or Alexander McQueen, next to imperial robes, bronzes, porcelains and calligraphies of the museum collection. A fitting introduction to this monographic, the exhibition tenders a timely contemporary example of Western perceptions of Chinese culture, highlighting a Western relationship with China from the standpoint of the imagination. Along with the tailors and designers exhibited at the MET, China has fueled the imagination of intellectuals, politicians, artists, and most particularly, writers, who have set their texts in fictional Chinas, and created a game of mirrors with other texts, translations and versions. Throughout this process, the significant “China” has concurred with some key developments in world literature, and as the articles here testify, continues to provide inspiration for authors from different literary traditions.