CLT/EAL232: Modern Chinese Literature: Background Readings

Perhaps nowhere else has literature been as conscious a collective endeavor as in China, and China's survival over three thousand years may owe more to its literary traditions than to its political history. This Very Short Introduction tells the story of Chinese literature from antiquity tothe present, focusing on the key role literary culture played in supporting social and political concerns. Embracing traditional Chinese understandings of literature as encompassing history and philosophy as well as poetry and poetics, storytelling, drama, and the novel, Sabina Knight discusses thephilosophical foundations of literary culture as well as literature's power to address historical trauma and cultivate moral and sensual passions. From ancient historical records through the modernization and globalization of Chinese literature, Knight draws on lively examples to underscore the close relationship between ethics and aesthetics, as well as the diversity of Chinese thought. Knight also illuminates the role of elite patronage; theways literature has served the interests of specific groups; and questions of canonization, language, nationalism, and cross-cultural understanding. The book includes Chinese characters for names, titles, and key terms.

More than fifty short essays centered on specific writers and literary trends create an engaging and easily digestible history of Chinese literature from the Qing period (1895-1911) to today. The essays in this volume can be read sequentially for a chronological account or separately in conjunction with reading the literary works in Chinese or English-language translation. Each entry features author names and titles, as well as key terms and references, in English and in Chinese characters for readers who know or are learning Chinese, and each concludes with a bibliography of relevant primary and secondary sources. The volume opens with eight thematic essays addressing general issues in the study of Chinese literature: the ethics of writing a literary history, the formation of the canon, the relationship between language and form, the influence of literary institutions and communities, the effects of censorship, and the role of different media on the development of literature. Subsequent essays focus on authors, their works, and their schools, with entries on Wang Anyi, Eileen Chang, Shen Congwen, Yu Dafu, Mao Dun, Xiao Hong, Yang Jiang, Ba Jin, Yan Lianke, Ding Ling, Liang Qichao, Lao She, Wang Shuo, Zhu Tianwen, Zhu Tianxin, Xi Xi, Gao Xingjian, Lu Xun, Mo Yan, and Qian Zhongshu. Woven throughout are more general pieces on late Qing fiction, popular entertainment fiction, martial arts fiction, experimental theater, post-Mao avant-garde poetry in China, post-martial law fiction from Taiwan, contemporary genre fiction from China, and recent Internet literature, among other topics. 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.

Modern Chinese literature has been flourishing for over a century, with varying degrees of intensity and energy at different junctures of history and points of locale. An integral part of world literature from the moment it was born, it has been in constant dialogue with its counterparts from the rest of the world. As it has been challenged and enriched by external influences, it has contributed to the wealth of literary culture of the entire world. In terms of themes and styles, modern Chinese literature is rich and varied; from the revolutionary to the pastoral, from romanticism to feminism, from modernism to post-modernism, critical realism, psychological realism, socialist realism, and magical realism. Indeed, it encompasses a full range of ideological and aesthetic concerns. Historical Dictionary of Modern Chinese Literature presents a broad perspective on the development and history of literature in modern China. It offers a chronology, introduction, bibliography, and over 300 cross-referenced dictionary entries on authors, literary and historical developments, trends, genres, and concepts that played a central role in the evolution of modern Chinese literature.

This title presents an up-to-date comprehensive treatment of Chinese literature from classical times to the present.

The Columbia History of Chinese Literature is a comprehensive yet portable guide to China's vast literary traditions. Stretching from earliest times to the present, the text features original contributions by leading specialists working in all genres and periods. Chapters cover poetry, prose, fiction, and drama, and consider such contextual subjects as popular culture, the impact of religion, the role of women, and China's relationship with non-Sinitic languages and peoples. Opening with a major section on the linguistic and intellectual foundations of Chinese literature, the anthology traces the development of forms and movements over time, along with critical trends, and pays particular attention to the premodern canon.

At the start of the twenty-first century, China is poised to become a major global power. Understanding its culture is more important than ever before for western audiences, but for many, China remains a mysterious and exotic country. This Companion explains key aspects of modern Chinese culture without assuming prior knowledge of China or the Chinese language. The volume acknowledges the interconnected nature of the different cultural forms, from 'high culture' such as literature, religion and philosophy to more popular issues such as sport, cinema, performance and the internet. Each chapter is written by a world expert in the field. Invaluable for students of Chinese studies, this book includes a glossary of key terms, a chronology and a guide to further reading. For the interested reader or traveler, it reveals a dynamic, diverse and fascinating culture, many aspects of which are now elucidated in English for the first time.

This award-winning multi-volume series is dedicated to making literature and its creators better understood and more accessible to students and interested readers, while satisfying the standards of librarians, teachers and scholars. Dictionary of Literary Biography provides reliable information in an easily comprehensible format, while placing writers in the larger perspective of literary history. Dictionary of Literary Biography systematically presents career biographies and criticism of writers from all eras and all genres through volumes dedicated to specific types of literature and time periods.For a listing of Dictionary of Literary Biography volumes sorted by genre click here.