Fictional Realism in Twentieth-century China

Fictional Realism in Twentieth-century China PDF Author: Dewei Wang
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231076562
Category : Chinese fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 396

Book Description
Although deconstruction has become a popular catchword, as an intellectual movement it has never entirely caught on within the university. For some in the academy, deconstruction, and Jacques Derrida in particular, are responsible for the demise of accountability in the study of literature. Countering these facile dismissals of Derrida and deconstruction, Herman Rapaport explores the incoherence that has plagued critical theory since the 1960s and the resulting legitimacy crisis in the humanities. Against the backdrop of a rich, informed discussion of Derrida's writings -- and how they have been misconstrued by critics and admirers alike -- The Theory Mess investigates the vicissitudes of Anglo-American criticism over the past thirty years and proposes some possibilities for reform.

Mao Dun and Realism

Mao Dun and Realism PDF Author: Maiheng Shen Dietrich
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Chinese literature
Languages : en
Pages : 426

Book Description


The Limits of Realism

The Limits of Realism PDF Author: Marston Anderson
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520414748
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Book Description
Chinese intellectuals of the early twentieth century were attracted to realism primarily as a tool for social regeneration. Realism encouraged writers to adopt the stance of the independent cultural critic and drew into the compass of serious literature the disenfranchised "others" of Chinese society. As historical pressures forced new ideological commitments in the late twenties and thirties, however, writers grew suspicious both of the "individualism" implicit in the realist model and of the often superficial nature of the sympathies that their fiction evoked in the middle class. Anderson argues that realism must be defined negatively as a "discourse of limitations" and is of minimal utility in the Chinese search for political and cultural empowerment. He shows how hesitations about the realist model affect the fiction of four representative authors, Lu Xun, Ye Shaojun, Mao Dun, and Zhang Tianyi. He also considers the demise of critical realism in the face of a new collectivist understanding of Chinese reality. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1990.

Midnight

Midnight PDF Author: Dun Mao
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 596

Book Description
Set in the 1930's when China was still a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country, the story follows Wu Sun-fu, an industrial capitalist in Shanghai.

The Limits of Realism

The Limits of Realism PDF Author: Marston Anderson
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520378024
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 237

Book Description
Chinese intellectuals of the early twentieth century were attracted to realism primarily as a tool for social regeneration. Realism encouraged writers to adopt the stance of the independent cultural critic and drew into the compass of serious literature the disenfranchised "others" of Chinese society. As historical pressures forced new ideological commitments in the late twenties and thirties, however, writers grew suspicious both of the "individualism" implicit in the realist model and of the often superficial nature of the sympathies that their fiction evoked in the middle class. Anderson argues that realism must be defined negatively as a "discourse of limitations" and is of minimal utility in the Chinese search for political and cultural empowerment. He shows how hesitations about the realist model affect the fiction of four representative authors, Lu Xun, Ye Shaojun, Mao Dun, and Zhang Tianyi. He also considers the demise of critical realism in the face of a new collectivist understanding of Chinese reality. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1990.

The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature

The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature PDF Author: Kirk A. Denton
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231541147
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 818

Book Description
The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature features more than fifty short essays on specific writers and literary trends from the Qing period (1895–1911) to the present. The volume opens with thematic essays on the politics and ethics of writing literary history, the formation of the canon, the relationship between language and form, the role of literary institutions and communities, the effects of censorship, the representation of the Chinese diaspora, the rise and meaning of Sinophone literature, and the role of different media in the development of literature. Subsequent essays focus on authors, their works, and the schools with which they were aligned, featuring key names, titles, and terms in English and in Chinese characters. Woven throughout are pieces on late Qing fiction, popular entertainment fiction, martial arts fiction, experimental theater, post-Mao avant-garde poetry, post–martial law fiction from Taiwan, contemporary genre fiction from China, and recent Internet literature. The volume includes essays on such authors as Liang Qichao, Lu Xun, Shen Congwen, Eileen Chang, Jin Yong, Mo Yan, Wang Anyi, Gao Xingjian, and Yan Lianke. Both a teaching tool and a go-to research companion, this volume is a one-of-a-kind resource for mastering modern literature in the Chinese-speaking world.

The Edge of Knowing

The Edge of Knowing PDF Author: Roy Bing Chan
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 0295999004
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 234

Book Description
Reveals the historical impact of dream rhetoric on Chinese modernity and nation-building Realism and the rhetoric of dreams intersected in modern Chinese literature from the May Fourth Era in the early twentieth century through the period just following the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976. The Edge of Knowing investigates this relationship, showing how writers’ attention to dreams demonstrates the multiple influences of Western psychology, utopian desire for revolutionary change, and the enduring legacy of traditional Chinese philosophy. At the same time, modern Chinese writers used their work to represent social reality for the purpose of nation building. Recent political usage of dream rhetoric in the People’s Republic of China attests to the continuing influence of dreams on the imagination of Chinese modernity. By employing a number of critical perspectives, The Edge of Knowing will appeal to readers seeking to understand the complicated relationship between literary form and Chinese history and politics.

Midnight

Midnight PDF Author: Mao Tun
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781589635685
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 588

Book Description
A novel about the violence and corruption in Nationalist China in the 1930's by Shen Yanbing (1896-1981), better known by the pen name Mao Tun, was a member of the generation that created a truly vernacular Chinese literature in the early twentieth century. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he was named Minister of Culture. The central figure in the story is Wu Sun-fu, an industrial capitalist in Shanghai, which was at that time the industrial and commercial center of China. Since its publication in 1933 Midnight has enjoyed immense popularity in China.

The Monster That Is History

The Monster That Is History PDF Author: Dewei Wang
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520238737
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Book Description
In ancient China a monster called Taowu was known for both its vicious nature and its power to see the past and the future. Since the seventeenth century, fictive accounts of history have accommodated themselves to the monstrous nature of Taowu. Moving effortlessly across the entire twentieth-century literary landscape, David Der-wei Wang delineates the many meanings of Chinese violence and its literary manifestations.

Modern Chinese Literary Thought

Modern Chinese Literary Thought PDF Author: Kirk A. Denton
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804725590
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 576

Book Description
This volume presents a broad range of writings on modern Chinese literature. Of the fifty-five essays included, forty-seven are translated here for the first time, including two essays by Lu Xun. In addition, the editor has provided an extensive general introduction and shorter introductions to the five parts of the book, historical background, a synthesis of current scholarship on modern views of Chinese literature, and an original thesis on the complex formation of Chinese literary modernity. The collection reflects both the mainstream Marxist interpretation of the literary values of modern China and the marginalized views proscribed, at one time or another, by the leftist canon. It offers a full spectrum of modern Chinese perceptions of fundamental literary issues.