The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature

by Kirk Denton

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231170093
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	04/05/2016
Pages:	488
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kirk A. Denton is professor of Chinese literature at the Ohio State University. His edited books include Modern Chinese Literary Thought: Writings on Literature, 1893–1945 (1996) and Literary Societies of Republican China (2008). He is author of The Problematic of Self in Modern Chinese Literature: Hu Feng and Lu Ling (1998) and Exhibiting the Past: Historical Memory and the Politics of Museums in Postsocialist China (2014). Denton is also editor of the journal Modern Chinese Literature and Culture and manager of the MCLC Resource Center (u.osu.edu/mclc/).

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments
Chronology of Major Historical Events
Part I. Thematic Essays
1. Historical Overview, by Kirk A. Denton
2. Modern Chinese Literature as an Institution: Canon and Literary History, by Yingjin Zhang
3. Language and Literary Form, by Charles Laughlin
4. Literary Communities and the Production of Literature, by Michel Hockx
5. Between Tradition and Modernity: Contested Classical Poetry, by Shengqing Wu
6. Diaspora in Modern Chinese Literature, by Shuyu Kong
7. Sinophone Literature, by Brian Bernards
8. Chinese Literature and Film Adaptation, by Hsiu-Chuang Deppman
Part II. Authors, Works, Schools
9. The Late Qing Poetry Revolution: Liang Qichao, Huang Zunxian, and Chinese Literary Modernity", by Jianhua Chen
10. The Uses of Fiction: Liang Qichao and His Contemporaries, by Alexander DesForges
11. Late Qing Fiction, by Ying Hu
12. Zhou Shoujuan's Love Stories and Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies Fiction, by Jianhua Chen
13. Form and Reform: New Poetry and the Crescent Moon Society, by John Crespi
14. Reconsidering the Origins of Modern Chinese Women's Writing, by Amy D. Dooling
15. The Madman That Was Ah Q: Tradition and Modernity in Lu Xun's Fiction, by Ann Huss
16. Romantic Sentiment and the Problem of the Subject: Yu Dafu, by Kirk A. Denton
17. Feminism and Revolution: The Work and Life of Ding Ling, by Jingyuan Zhang
18. The Debate on Revolutionary Literature, by Charles Laughlin
19. Mao Dun, the Modern Novel, and the Representation of Women, by Hilary Chung
20. Ba Jin's Family: Fiction, Representation, and Relevance, by Nicholas A. Kaldis
21. Chinese Modernism: The New Sensationists, by Steven L. Riep
22. Shen Congwen and Imagined Native Communities, by Jeffrey Kinkley
23. Xiao Hong's Field of Life and Death, by Amy D. Dooling
24. Performing the Nation: Chinese Drama and Theater, by Xiaomei Chen
25. Cao Yu and Thunderstorm, by Jonathan Noble
26. The Reluctant Nihilism of Lao She's Rickshaw, by Thomas Moran
27. Eileen Chang and Narratives of Cities and Worlds, by Nicole Huang
28. Literature and Politics: Mao Zedong's "Yan'an Talks" and Party Rectification, by Kirk A. Denton
29. Qian Zhongshu and Yang Jiang: A Literary Marriage, by Christopher Rea
30. Revolutionary Realism and Revolutionary Romanticism: Song of Youth, by Ban Wang
31. The Hundred Flowers: Qin Zhaoyang, Wang Meng, and Liu Binyan, by Richard King
32. Cold War Fiction from Taiwan and the Modernists, by Christopher Lupke
33. Nativism and Localism in Taiwanese Literature, by Christopher Lupke
34. The Cultural Revolution Model Theater, by Di Bai
35. Martial-Arts Fiction and Jin Yong, by John Christopher Hamm
36. Taiwanese Romance: Qiong Yao and San Mao, by Miriam Lang
37. Misty Poetry, by Michelle Yeh
38. Scar Literature and the Memory of Trauma, by Sabina Knight
39. Culture Against Politics: Roots-Seeking Literature, by Mark Leenhouts
40. Mo Yan, by Yomi Braester
41. Avant-Garde Fiction in Post-Mao China, by Andrew F. Jones
42. Contemporary Experimental Theaters in the PRC, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, by Rossella Ferrari
43. Modern Poetry of Taiwan, by Michelle Yeh
44. Homoeroticism in Modern Chinese Literature, by Thomas Moran
45. Contemporary Urban Fiction: Rewriting the City, by Robin Visser and Jie Lu
46. Xi Xi and Tales of Hong Kong, by Daisy S.Y. Ng
47. Writing Taiwan's Fin-de-Siècle Splendor: Zhu Tianwen and Zhu Tianxin, by Lingchei Letty Chen
48. Wang Anyi, by Lingzhen Wang
49. Wang Shuo, by Jonathan Noble
50. Commercialization of Literature in the Post-Mao Era: Yu Hua, Beauty Writers, and Youth Writers, by Zhen Zhang
51. Popular Genre Fiction: Science Fiction and Fantasy, by Mingwei Song
52. Word and Image: Gao Xingjian, by Mabel Lee
53. Hong Kong Voices: Literature from the Late Twentieth Century to the New Millennium, by Esther M.K. Cheung
54. Avant-Garde Poetry in China Since the 1980s, by Maghiel van Crevel
55. Taiwan Literature in the Post–Martial Law Era, by Michael Berry
56. Speaking from the Margins: Yan Lianke, by Carlos Rojas
57. Internet Literature: From YY to MOOC, by Heather Inwood

Editorial Reviews

The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature is a dynamite collection of short, smart essays written by many of the leading scholars in the field. It is not only a useful source but also a good read that brings alive the cultural complexity behind the many passionate debates surrounding modern literature in China.

Wendy Larson

The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature is as close to an all-purpose work as we are likely to have. A broad-based introduction to the literary offerings and studies of modern Chinese literature for newcomers; a reference work for specialists; and a showcase for the best veteran and young scholars in the field. An indispensable tool.

Howard Goldblatt

The field of modern Chinese literature has grown immensely in recent decades. Only collaboration among many scholars can encompass it. The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature does this, but it is much more than a reference book. It is a kaleidoscope of deft and charming essays that provide insight as well as background for students at all levels. The book will be invaluable in teaching.

Perry Link

The field of modern Chinese literature has grown immensely in recent decades. Only collaboration among many scholars can encompass it. The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature does this, but it is much more than a reference book. It is a kaleidoscope of deft and charming essays that provide insight as well as background for students at all levels. The book will be invaluable in teaching.

Perry Link

The Columbia Companion is a very stimulating guide to modern Chinese literature. More than that, it is a landmark work.... No other single volume has presented this range of literature and this level of critical introduction. Whether as teachers or as research scholars, we should not overlook this contribution to our field.

Modern Chinese Literature and Culture - Edward Mansfield Gunn

The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature addresses a range of issues crucial to our understanding of modern Chinese literary culture, from the birth of new fiction to the advent of Internet writing and from the vitality of cultural production to the vigor of political intervention. In this volume, Chinese literature appears to be a most powerful institution that inscribes, and sometimes even prescribes, the history of modern China.

David Der-wei Wang