art, academic and non-fiction books
publishers’ Eastern and Central European representation

Name your list

Log in / Sign in

ta strona jest nieczynna, ale zapraszamy serdecznie na stronę www.obibook.com /// this website is closed but we cordially invite you to visit www.obibook.com

ISBN: PB: 9781684580279

ISBN: HB: 9781684580262

University of Chicago Press, Brandeis University Press

October 2020

296 pp.

22.8x15.2 cm

PB:
£28,00
QTY:
HB:
£72,00
QTY:

Categories:

Why Fiction Matters in Contemporary China

Contemporary discussions of China tend to focus on politics and economics, giving Chinese culture little if any attention. Why Fiction Matters in Contemporary China offers a corrective, revealing the crucial role that fiction plays in helping contemporary Chinese citizens understand themselves and their nation. Where history fails to address the consequences of man-made and natural atrocities, David Der-Wei Wang argues, fiction arises to bear witness to the immemorial and unforeseeable. Beginning by examining President Xi Jinping's call in 2013 to "tell the good China story", Wang illuminates how contemporary Chinese cultural politics have taken a "fictional turn", which can trace its genealogy to early modern times. He does so by addressing a series of discourses by critics within China, including Liang Qichao, Lu Xun, and Shen Congwen, as well as critics from the West such as Arendt, Benjamin, and Deleuze. Wang highlights the variety and vitality of fictional works from China as well as the larger Sinophone world, ranging from science fiction to political allegory, erotic escapade to utopia and dystopia. The result is an insightful account of contemporary China, one that affords countless new insights and avenues for understanding.

About the Author

David Der-wei Wang is the Edward C. Henderson Professor in Chinese and Comparative Literature at Harvard University. He is the author of "The Lyrical in Epic Time: Modern Chinese Intellectuals and Artists Through the 1949 Crisis" and the editor of "A New Literary History of Modern China", among other books.