Download or read book The Historicization of Contemporary Literature written by Cheng Guangwei and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-09-03 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a concise introduction to the intellectual trends in contemporary Chinese literature from the 1950s to the 1990s and the influence of overseas Sinology. The turbulent period of the second half of the 20th century in China witnessed a significant societal shift from a revolutionary to an economic focus. This transformation introduced and stimulated various ideas, reshaping public thought and reconstructing the historical landscape of contemporary Chinese literature. This book explores the response and self-exploration of domestic literary studies of the period, which were heavily influenced by the Western academic tradition and overseas Sinology studies. It examines critical phenomena, figures, and events in this context. The author's narrative vividly illustrates the interplay and dialogue of factors such as revolution, reform and opening up, and the rise of literature in the 1980s and 1990s. Combining the methodologies of literary and social history, and integrating personal historical experience with rigorous academic methods, this book provides a unique research framework for revisiting the cultural scene of the period. The title will appeal to scholars and students of contemporary Chinese literature and history. It will also attract general readers interested in Chinese culture and society in the 1980s and 1990s.
Download or read book The historicization of Contemporary Chinese Literature written by Guangwei Cheng and published by . This book was released on 2024-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book provides a concise introduction to the intellectual trends in contemporary Chinese literature from the 1950s to the 1990s and the influence of overseas Sinology. The turbulent period of the second half of the 20th century in China witnessed a significant societal shift from a revolutionary to an economic focus. This transformation introduced and stimulated various ideas, reshaping public thought and reconstructing the historical landscape of contemporary Chinese literature. This book explores the response and self-exploration of domestic literary studies of the period, which were heavily influenced by the Western academic tradition and overseas Sinology studies. It examines critical phenomena, figures and events in this context. The author's narrative vividly illustrates the interplay and dialogue of factors such as revolution, reform and opening up, and the rise of literature in the 1980s and 1990s. Combining the methodologies of literary and social history, and integrating personal historical experience with rigorous academic methods, this book provides a unique research framework for revisiting the cultural scene of the period. The title will appeal to scholars and students of contemporary Chinese literature and history. It will also attract general readers interested in Chinese culture and society in the 1980s and 1990s"--
Download or read book Contemporary Drift written by Theodore Martin and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-30 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to call something “contemporary”? More than simply denoting what’s new, it speaks to how we come to know the present we’re living in and how we develop a shared story about it. The story of trying to understand the present is an integral, yet often unnoticed, part of the literature and film of our moment. In Contemporary Drift, Theodore Martin argues that the contemporary is not just a historical period but also a conceptual problem, and he claims that contemporary genre fiction offers a much-needed resource for resolving that problem. Contemporary Drift combines a theoretical focus on the challenge of conceptualizing the present with a historical account of contemporary literature and film. Emphasizing both the difficulty and the necessity of historicizing the contemporary, the book explores how recent works of fiction depict life in an age of global capitalism, postindustrialism, and climate change. Through new histories of the novel of manners, film noir, the Western, detective fiction, and the postapocalyptic novel, Martin shows how the problem of the contemporary preoccupies a wide range of novelists and filmmakers, including Zadie Smith, Colson Whitehead, Vikram Chandra, China Miéville, Kelly Reichardt, and the Coen brothers. Martin argues that genre provides these artists with a formal strategy for understanding both the content and the concept of the contemporary. Genre writing, with its mix of old and new, brings to light the complicated process by which we make sense of our present and determine what belongs to our time.
Download or read book History Made History Imagined written by David Walter Price and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this provocative and original study, David Price investigates history as a form of poiesis -- the act of making in language -- and suggests that certain novels can provide the best means of engaging in historical interpretation. Contending that the fundamental act of narration itself, including the narration of history, expresses a system of values, Price explores the work of seven contemporary novelists who share a commitment to reexamining history as idea and a refusal to accept history as given. Within a theoretical framework based on Friedrich Nietzsche and Giambattista Vico, Price investigates how these writers -- Carlos Fuentes, Susan Daitch, Salman Rushdie, Michel Tournier, Ishmael Reed, Graham Swift, and Mario Vargas Llosa -- create a discursive space between history and literature, a space within which history can be questioned and the making of history explored. Through their novels, these writers replace the univocal expression of history as a description of "what really happened" with a polyvocality of competing discourses, languages, and points of view. Price's investigation of three modalities of the poietic novel -- the history of forgotten possibilities, the construction of countermemory and cultural critique, and history as myth -- has far-reaching implications for how we read and question the narratives we understand as history. By treating the past as a dynamic flow of values, rather than a fixed collection of facts, History Made, History Imagined fosters a deeper understanding not only of literature and philosophy but also of history and our relationship to it.
Download or read book The Limits of Literary Historicism written by Allen Dunn and published by Univ. of Tennessee Press. This book was released on 2012-02-28 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Limits of Literary Historicism is a collection of essays arguing that historicism, which has come to dominate the professional study of literature in recent decades, has become ossified. By drawing attention to the limits of historicism—its blind spots, overreach, and reluctance to acknowledge its commitments—this provocative new book seeks a clearer understanding of what historicism can and cannot teach us about literary narrative. Editors Allen Dunn and Thomas F. Haddox have gathered contributions from leading scholars that challenge the dominance of contemporary historicism. These pieces critique historicism as it is generally practiced, propose alternative historicist models that transcend mere formula, and suggest alternatives to historicism altogether. The volume begins with the editors’ extended introduction, “The Enigma of Critical Distance; or, Why Historicists Need Convictions,” and then is divided into three sections: “The Limits of Historicism,” “Engagements with History,” and “Alternatives to History.” Defying convention, The Limits of Literary Historicism shakes up established modes to move beyond the claustrophobic analyses of contemporary historicism and to ask larger questions that envision more fulfilling and more responsible possibilities in the practice of literary scholarship.
Download or read book Telling Histories written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-06-08 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The proliferation of historical novels with more or less overt metafictional traits in the late seventies and eighties in Britain is a particularly arresting phenomenon at a time when historians are openly questioning the validity of the traditional concept of history understood as a scientific search for knowledge. This apparent contradiction justifies the attempt made by the contributors of this volume to analize the relationship between history and literature in English. The reader will find four preliminary essays on The End of the Classical Period establishing the characteristics of the appropriation of history since the appearance of Sir Walter Scott's historical romances with special emphasis on the Victorian novel (Dickens, Eliot, Mrs Humphry Ward), the Irish ballad and Post-Independence Indian historical fiction, as a necessary preface to the main group of essays on The Postmodernist Era devoted to establishing the common as well as the individually distinctive traits in the writings of some of the most accomplished contemporary writers in English: the more centered British novelists Margaret Drabble, Julian Barnes and William Golding as well as the more ex-centric Angela Carter, Salman Rushdie and Jeanette Winterson plus the playwright Caryl Churchill, and the black American novelist David Bradley.
Download or read book Historicizing Theory written by Peter C. Herman and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historicizing Theory provides the first serious examination of contemporary theory in relation to the various twentieth-century historical and political contexts out of which it emerged. Theory—a broad category that is often used to encompass theoretical approaches as varied as deconstruction, New Historicism, and postcolonialism—has often been derided as a mere "relic" of the 1960s. In order to move beyond such a simplistic assessment, the essays in this volume examine such important figures as Harold Bloom, Paul de Man, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Stephen Greenblatt, and Edward Said, situating their work in a variety of contexts inside and outside of the 1960s, including World War II, the Holocaust, the Algerian civil war, and the canon wars of the 1980s. In bringing us face-to-face with the history of theory, Historicizing Theory recuperates history for theory and asks us to confront some of the central issues and problems in literary studies today.
Download or read book On Contemporary Literature written by Stuart Pratt Sherman and published by Palala Press. This book was released on 2018-02-20 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Download or read book Historicizing Fiction Fictionalizing History written by Nishevita J. Murthy and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2014-10-16 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historicizing Fiction/Fictionalizing History brings together two authors, Umberto Eco and Orhan Pamuk, not frequently studied in comparison. By focusing on their non/fictional works to present a unique study of the methods and concepts of representation, Murthy uses contemporary historical novels to examine fictional depictions of reality, and provides a fresh perspective on representation studies in literature. Written in an accessible style, and tapping into fields as varied as literary and critical theory, the historical novel, postmodernism, and historiography, Historicizing Fiction/Fictionalizing History considers the ways in which reality, as discourse, confronts a text-external reality, and how this confrontation affects the autonomy of the fictional space – topics that remain persistently problematic areas within literary studies. Eco’s The Name of the Rose and Baudolino, and Pamuk’s My Name is Red and Snow, with their topical concerns and methods of representation, promise a rewarding comparative study. This book provides an early critical framework for these four works, placing them within the rubric of the postmodernist historical novel, as creative works that also comment on the process of literary writing through their recreation of historical pasts. In this respect, Historicizing Fiction/Fictionalizing History promises to be an engaging read in literary criticism and historiography, as well as a handy companion for Eco and Pamuk enthusiasts.
Download or read book The Pleasures of Babel written by Jay Clayton and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1993-12-02 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Pleasures of Babel acquaints the layperson and the expert alike with the creative and intellectual achievements of America's multicultural society. Arguing that the present is "a great period of writing," Jay Clayton relates novels from the seventies, eighties, and nineties to the latest developments in literary theory. He offers a lucid, cutting-edge look at the often stormy relationship between contemporary literature and criticism. Avoiding theoretical jargon, Clayton systematically sets out to make sense of the critical movements of the last two decades: deconstruction, psychoanalysis, minority writing, multiculturalism, and feminism. In the course of clarifying the accomplishments of Barthes, Kristeva, Lyotard, Said, and others, the author discusses some of America's most prominent writers of fiction: Saul Bellow, Sandra Cisneros, E.L. Doctorow, Toni Morrison, and many others. The result successfully weds a layperson's guide to recent criticism with a scholarly application of that criticism to the very works it concerns. In light of the current debates being waged over the canon and multiculturalism, The Pleasures of Babel should prove an indispensable tool for those engaged in the practice of literary criticism, as well as anyone concerned with the way in which narrative interacts with society.
Download or read book On Contemporary Literature Classic Reprint written by Stuart Pratt Sherman and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-07-05 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from On Contemporary Literature Persistent fallacy of criticism. Holding the critic's opinions to be obligatory upon other readers, says one of Professor Dewey's followers in an interestingly anar chical treatise on The Social Criticism of Literature, is very like fiat money - easy to issue but sometimes harder to realize upon. No power on earth can make a book really valuable to me if it is not so. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Download or read book The Story Smuggler written by Georgi Gospodinov and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2024-02-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Some smuggle cigarettes, others alcohol - or weapons. Our contraband, being invisible, is more dangerous. Our contraband is undetectable by scanners. What we carry as concealed excess baggage is stories.' In this exquisite literary gem, Georgi Gospodinov, winner of the International Booker Prize, invites the reader on a winding journey through his own memories. He shows us a childhood under Communism, a particularly Bulgarian variety of melancholy, the freedom and thrills found in reading and writing, and the coming of age of one extraordinary writer. Ultimately, this profound, playful and deeply moving autobiographical text offers resounding proof of the power and importance of storytelling. TRANSLATED FROM THE BULGARIAN BY KRISTINA KOVACHEVA AND DAN GUNN
Download or read book Early Modern Voices in Contemporary Literature and on Screen written by Ambra Moroncini and published by Quod Manet. This book was released on 2024-03-13 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The “intangible power” of literature, which, in Umberto Eco’s words, “allows us to travel through a textual labyrinth (be it an entire encyclopaedia or the complete works of William Shakespeare) without necessarily ‘unravelling’ all the information it contains”, may be clearly identifiable in our contemporary age of intertextuality and, most importantly, of interdisciplinarity. It suffices to think of the countless film adaptations of Shakespeare’s works, or of the popular appeal of Dan Brown’s global bestsellers, the so-called Robert Langdon book series, which has made original (and contentious) use of literary and artistic masterpieces such as Dante’s Divine Comedy and Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. What is more, the investigation of literature’s verbality through the lenses of cinematic and media perspectives has greatly benefitted from scholarly insights into dialogism, heteroglossia, polyphony, and historiophoty, opening new aural and visual windows of interpretation and knowledge. With these considerations in mind, this book explores the enduring presence of some of the most revolutionary early modern voices and works in our contemporary time. It embraces a rich diversity of literary genres (from poetry to storytelling, novels, fairy tales, and historical colonial chronicles, while also considering musical theatre compositions), and broadens the scope of research to the world of media, with cutting edge insights into contemporary films, TV series, and videogames. It presents innovative scholarly perspectives on how early modern works and themes are explored, remediated and refashioned today to address cultural, political, and social issues germane to our global moment.
Download or read book The Linguistic Turn in Contemporary Japanese Literary Studies written by Michael K. Bourdaghs and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2020-06-01 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1970s and 1980s saw a revolution in Japanese literary criticism. A new generation of scholars and critics, many of them veterans of 1960s political activism, arose in revolt against the largely positivistic methodologies that had hitherto dominated postwar literary studies. Creatively refashioning approaches taken from the field of linguistics, the new scholarship challenged orthodox interpretations, often introducing new methodologies in the process: structuralism, semiotics, and phenomenological linguistics, among others. The radical changes introduced then continue to reverberate today, shaping the way Japanese literature is studied both at home and abroad. The Linguistic Turn in Contemporary Japanese Literary Studies is the first critical study of this revolution to appear in English. It includes translations of landmark essays published in the 1970s and 1980s by such influential figures as Noguchi Takehiko, Kamei Hideo, Mitani Kuniaki, and Hirata Yumi. It also collects nine new essays that reflect critically on the emergence of linguistics-based literary criticism and theory in Japan, exploring both the novel possibilities such theory created and the shortcomings that could not be overcome. Scholars from a variety of disciplines and fields probe the political and intellectual implications of this transformation and explore the exciting new pathways it opened up for the study of modern Japanese literature.
Download or read book Historicizing Life Writing and Egodocuments in Early Modern Europe written by James R. Farr and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-01-12 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume historicizes the study of life-writing and egodocuments, focusing on early modern European reflections on the self, self-fashioning, and identity. Life-writing and the study of egodocuments currently tend to be viewed as separate fields, yet the individual as a purposive social actor provides significant common ground and offers a vehicle, both theoretical and practical, for a profitable synthesis of the two in a historical context. Echoing scholars from a wide-range of disciplines who recognize the uncertainty of the nature of the self, these essays question the notion of the autonomous self and the attendant idea of continuous identity unfolding in a unified personality. Instead, they suggest that the early modern self was variable and unstable, and can only be grasped by exploring selves situated in specific historical and social/cultural contexts and revealed through the wide range of historical documents considered here. The three sections of the volume consider: first, the theoretical contexts of understanding egodocuments in early modern Europe; then, the practical ways egodocuments from the period may be used for writing life-histories today; and finally, a wider range of historical documents that might be added to what are usually seen as egodocuments.
Download or read book A Companion to American Literature and Culture written by Paul Lauter and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-02-12 with total page 708 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This expansive Companion offers a set of fresh perspectives on the wealth of texts produced in and around what is now the United States. * Highlights the diverse voices that constitute American literature, embracing oral traditions, slave narratives, regional writing, literature of the environment, and more * Demonstrates that American literature was multicultural before Europeans arrived on the continent, and even more so thereafter * Offers three distinct paradigms for thinking about American literature, focusing on: genealogies of American literary study; writers and issues; and contemporary theories and practices * Enables students and researchers to generate richer, more varied and more comprehensive readings of American literature
Download or read book Historicizing the Embodied Imagination in Early Modern English Literature written by Grant Williams and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2024-06-29 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited collection reconnects the literary imagination to the early modern cognitive environment. Under the spell of post-romantic aesthetics, modernist criticism regarded the imagination as an autonomous driver of artistic production and severed its dense ties to the image, reducing the latter to a formalistic category emptied of psychological significance. But early modern writers and thinkers did not hold such views. They understood the literary image to issue from the embodied mental faculties of the author and, through its rhetorical inscription, to influence, in turn, the interiority of the reader. For both authors and readers, then, engaging with images was not a detached aesthetic experience; it was a psycho-physiological struggle fraught with ethical peril insofar as the imagination was known for its volatility and unruliness, susceptible to the dysfunction brought on by disease and bearing, at times, in Protestant England the taint of superstition and idolatry. This volume accordingly investigates the imagination’s alliances, altercations, and betrayals with rival cognitive operations based upon premodern faculty psychology.
