Subjective writing in contemporary Chinese literature / Jin Siyan ; translated by Isabelle Lee.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jin, Siyan, 1957- author.

Contributor:

Lee, Isabelle (Translator), translator.

Standardized Title:

Écriture subjective dans la littérature chinoise contemporaine. English

Language:

Chinese

English

French

Subjects (All):

Chinese literature--20th century--History and criticism.

Chinese literature.

Civilization.

China--Civilization--20th century.

China.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xxix, 436 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Hong Kong : The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, [2020]

Language Note:

Includes some text in Chinese

Summary:

Translated from the original French publication, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of 20th century Chinese literature and examines the relationship between Chinese literary theory and modernity. Jin Siyan surveys the work of leading writers including Zhang Ailing, Beidao, and Mu Dan. She seeks to answer some fundamental questions in the study of Chinese literary history, such as: How does contemporary Chinese literature go from historical narrative to the narrative of the I, where rhythm and epic merge into writing, and where the instinctive load of the rhythm substantiates the epic? What are the steps and the forms of mediation that allow such a transition? Is the subject the only agent of the transition? What is its status? What is the role of poetic language that led to the birth of the subject and which separates it from empiricism? What are the difficulties faced by Chinese writers today? Young Chinese writers set off in search of a totally new writing to rediscover subjectivity, which is in no way limited to literature; it also covers areas such as the law, and the expression of the I confronted with an overpowering we.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: ch. 1 Four Figures (Phases) of the I: A History of Subjective Writing

Figure I The I as Inquisitor of Its Own Soul and Victim/Accomplice of History

Figure II The I as the Other: Dissonance of the Subject Who Refuses to Be an Accomplice of History

Figure III The I Internalised to the Very Depths of the Even Stranger Self

Figure IV I and He: Dual Time

The Present and Memory

ch. II An Underground Voice: Zhang Zhongxiao

Wumenglou Suibi (Essays from the Dreamless Pavilion)

Zhang Zhongxiao, a Voice in Utter Solitude

Subjective Writing from Out of the Solitary Voice

ch. III Memory of the J: Disengagement, Assertion, and Interrogation of the Subject

Mu Dan

Youth (1934-1937): Grave and Pensive Dawn-Light

First English Influence: Youthful Prose

The "Modernist" Phase (1938-1941)

Mythical Evocation and the End of Chronology

Transformation: From Modernism to Realism: The / Craving Realism (1949-1957)

Time of "Silence" (1958-1974): Writing Abandoned

Last Years (1975-1977): Metamorphosis of the / and Mythical or Divine Temptation

ch. IV Historicity and Internal Memory: The Today School and the Stars Group

From the Chorus of the We to the Solo Performance

The / Looking Out: The Today School

Metamorphosis: The / and Its Shadow

Historical, Internal, and Intermediate Time

Breaking to Create: A Twin for Today

The Stars Group of Artists

ch. V A Breakthrough for Modernity: Fragmentary Women's Writing

Xiao Hong and Zhang Ailing

Periods

The Committed I: First Signs of Feminism

High Tension Writing: The Triad of History/Narrative/Narration

Acceleration/Deceleration

ch. VI Fragmentary Women's Writing: Lin Bai and Can Xue

Writing in Parentheses: Lin Bai

Interrogatory Writing: Can Xue

ch. VII Death: Hai Zi's City of the Sun

Death: Immanentisation of the Spirit

The I as Memory Stone without Memory

The I Identifying with the Sun

ch. VIII A Commitment Both Existential and Linguistic: Zhai Yongming

Illusion and Chance in Autonomous Monologue

Night: An Inner Light between Before-Sense, After-Sense, and Nonsense

Midnight: The Altered Instant of Disappearing/Appearing

ch. IX Writing: A Dreamed Elsewhere

Literary China's Imaginary West

The West: Terminology and Three Introductory Paths

Figures of the West: The Religious and a Dreamed Elsewhere

ch. X Bei Dao: The Infinitely Other I in Search of Pure Poetry

Early Steps towards a Pure Poetry

The Wandering I: Internal Escape

The Infinitely Othered I

Ambiguity of the I

Towards a Polysemy of the Word Opposed to the Univocality of the Subjective

The Musicality of Poetry at Four Levels of Fracture: Can Impossibility Be Rendered Possible in Writing?

CONCLUSION: The Other: Identity or Identification? The Evolution of Contemporary Chinese Literature

From the Text to the Reader

Subjective Writing: Concept and Issues

Challenges and Approaches

Outcome and Research Prospects

Writing Called Into Question: The Problem of Language

Women's Writing

New Research Approach: Utopian or Dystopian Writing.

Notes:

"Translated and revised from French edition L'ecriture subjective dans la litterature chinoise contemporaine : devenir je"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 389-436).

ISBN:

9789629967871

9629967871

OCLC:

957683546

Publisher Number:

99988118792