China's avant-garde fiction : an anthology / edited by Jing Wang.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Wang, Jing, 1950-

Language:

Chinese

English

Subjects (All):

Chinese fiction--20th century--Translations into English.

Chinese fiction.

Experimental fiction.

Physical Description:

283 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 1998.

Summary:

Filled with mirages, hallucinations, myths, mental puzzles, and the fantastic, the contemporary experimental fiction of the Chinese avant-garde represents a genre of storytelling unlike any other. Whether engaging the worn spectacle of history, expressing seemingly unmotivated violence, or reinventing outlandish Tibetan myths, these stories are defined by their devotion to theatrics and their willful apathy toward everything held sacred by the generation that witnessed the Cultural Revolution.

Jing Wang has selected provocative examples of this new school of writing, which gained prominence in the late 1980s. Contradicting many long-cherished beliefs about Chinese writers -- including the alleged tradition of writing as a political act against authoritarianism -- these stories make a dramatic break from conventions of modern Chinese literature by demonstrating an irreverence toward history and culture and by celebrating the artificiality of storytelling. Enriched by the work of a distinguished group of translators, this collection presents an aesthetic experience that may have outraged many revolutionary-minded readers in China, but one that also occupies an important place in the canon of Chinese literature. China' s Avant-Garde Fiction brings together a group of exceptional writers (including Raise the Red Lantern author Su Tong) to the attention of an English-speaking audience.

This book will be enjoyed by those interested in Chinese literature, culture, and society -- particularly readers of contemporary fiction.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

0822321165

0822321009

OCLC:

37499949