Soul of chaos : critical perspectives on Gao Xingjian / edited by Kwok-kan Tam.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Tam, Kwok-kan.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gao, Xingjian--Criticism and interpretation.

Gao, Xingjian.

Chinese literature--History and criticism.

Chinese literature.

Chinese drama--History and criticism.

Chinese drama.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

viii, 345 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Hong Kong : The Chinese University Press, [2001]

Summary:

Gao Xingjian, the Nobel Laureate in Literature 2000, is a writer of many talents, being a novelist, playwright, stage director, painter, translator and critic at the same time. The Swedish Academy summarized in a press release Gao's achievements as follows: "an oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama." His novels, Soul Mountain and One Man's Bible, and his many later plays seek to rediscover the self in its originary consciousness, which is translingual and transcultural.

Educated in China and now residing in France, Gao Xingjian writes in between two traditions, the Chinese and the Western. He started his literary career in the early 1980s, and has been noted for his experimention with the dramatic form and his innovation in the use of narrative voice. In his works, he explores subjectivity beyond the limits of language by examining the self in relation to gender, culture, location and politics.

This book presents a collection of critical studies on various aspects of Gao Xingjian's novels and plays. Contributors include distinguished scholars in the fields of comparative literature, theatre and Chinese studies, whose views form a critical dialogue on the writer's achievements in literature and the theatre. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction: Gao Xingjian, the Nobel Prize and the Politics of Recognition / Kwok-kan Tam 1

1. Gao Xingjian on the Issue of Literary Creation for the Modern Writer / Mabel Lee 21

2. Drama of Paradox: Waiting as Form and Motif in The Bus-Stop and Waiting for Godot / Kwok-kan Tam 43

3. Avant-Garde Theatre in Post-Mao China: The Bus-Stop by Gao Xingjian / William Tay 67

4. The Theatre of the Absurd in China: Gao Xingjian's The Bus-Stop / Ma Sen 77

5. Wild Man Between Two Cultures / Xiaomei Chen 89

6. The Myth of Gao Xingjian / Jo Riley, Michael Gissenwehrer 111

7. Gao Xingjian's Monologue as Metadrama / Amy T. Y. Lai 133

8. Gao Xingjian and the Idea of the Theatre / Gilbert C. F. Fong 147

9. Space and Suppositionality in Gao Xingjian's Theatre / Quah Sy Ren 157

10. Gao Xingjian and the Asian Experimentation in Postmodernist Performance / Kwok-kan Tam 201

11. Gender and Self in Gao Xingjian's Three Post-Exile Plays / Terry Siu-han Yip, Kwok-kan Tam 215

12. Pronouns as Protagonists: On Gao Xingjian's Theories of Narration / Mabel Lee 235

13. World Literature with Chinese Characteristics: On a Novel by Gao Xingjian / Torbjorn Loden 257

14. Gao Xingjian's Dialogue with Two Dead Poets from Shaoxing: Xu Wei and Lu Xun / Mabel Lee 277

15. Language as Subjectivity in One Man's Bible / Kwok-kan Tam 293

16. A Chronology of Gao Xingjian / Terry Siu-han Yip 311.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9622019935

OCLC:

47796891