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Atlas : the archaeology of an imaginary city / Dung Kai-cheung ; translated by Dung Kai-cheung, Anders Hansson, and Bonnie S. McDougall.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Dong, Qizhang, 1967- author, translator.
- Series:
- Weatherhead books on Asia.
- Weatherhead Books on Asia
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Hong Kong (China)--Fiction.
- Hong Kong (China).
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (233 p.)
- Edition:
- 1st ed.
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Columbia University Press, 2012.
- Language Note:
- English
- Summary:
- Set in the long-lost City of Victoria (a fictional world similar to Hong Kong), Atlas is written from the unified perspective of future archaeologists struggling to rebuild a thrilling metropolis. Divided into four sections-"Theory," "The City," "Streets," and "Signs"-the novel reimagines Victoria through maps and other historical documents and artifacts, mixing real-world scenarios with purely imaginary people and events while incorporating anecdotes and actual and fictional social commentary and critique.Much like the quasi-fictional adventures in map-reading and remapping explored by Paul Auster, Jorge Luis Borges, and Italo Calvino, Dung Kai-cheung's novel challenges the representation of place and history and the limits of technical and scientific media in reconstructing a history. It best exemplifies the author's versatility and experimentation, along with China's rapidly evolving literary culture, by blending fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in a story about succeeding and failing to recapture the things we lose. Playing with a variety of styles and subjects, Dung Kai-cheung inventively engages with the fate of Hong Kong since its British "handover" in 1997, which officially marked the end of colonial rule and the beginning of an uncharted future.
- Contents:
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface: An Archaeology for the Future / Kai-cheung, Dung
- Introduction / McDougall, Bonnie S.
- Part One: Theory
- 1 Counterplace
- 2 Commonplace
- 3. Misplace
- 4 Displace
- 5 Antiplace
- 6 Nonplace
- 7Extraterritoriality
- 8 Boundary
- 9 Utopia
- 10 Supertopia
- 11 Subtopia
- 12 Transtopia
- 14 Unitopia
- 15 Omnitopia
- Part Two: The City
- 16 Mirage: City in the Sea
- 17 Mirage: Towers in the Air
- 18 Pottinger's inverted vision
- 19 Gordon's Jail
- 20 "Plan of the City of Victoria," 1889
- 21 The Four Wan and Nine Yeuk
- 22 The Centaur of the East
- 23 Scandal Point and the Military Cantonment
- 24 Mr. Smith's One-Day Trip
- 25 The View from Government House
- 26 The Toad of Belcher's Dream
- 27 The Return of Kwan Tai Loo
- 28 The Curse of Tai Ping Shan
- 29 War Game
- Part Three: Streets
- 30 Spring Garden Lane
- 31 Ice House Street
- 32 Sugar Street
- 33 Tsat Tsz Mui Road
- 34 Canal Road East and Canal Road West
- 35 Aldrich Street
- 36 Possession Street
- 37 Sycamore Street
- 38 Tung Choi Street and Sai Yeung Choi Street
- 39 Sai Yee Street
- 40 Public Square Street
- 41 Cedar Street
- Part Four: Signs
- 42 The Decline of the Legend
- 43 The Eye of the Typhoon
- 44 Chek Lap Kok Airport
- 45 The Metonymic Spectrum
- 46 The Elevation of Imagination
- 47 Geological Discrimination
- 48 North-Oriented Declination
- 49 The Travel of Numbers
- 50 The Tomb of Signs
- 51 The Orbit of Time
- Acknowledgments
- Author & Translators
- Notes:
- Description based upon print version of record.
- Description based on print version record.
- ISBN:
- 9780231504225
- 0231504225
- OCLC:
- 818854420
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