Synopses & Reviews
Perhaps nowhere else has literature been as conscious a collective endeavor as in China, and China's survival over three thousand years may owe more to its literary traditions than to its political history. This Very Short Introduction tells the story of Chinese literature from antiquity to the present, focusing on the key role literary culture played in supporting social and political concerns. Embracing traditional Chinese understandings of literature as encompassing history and philosophy as well as poetry and poetics, storytelling, drama, and the novel, Sabina Knight discusses the philosophical foundations of literary culture as well as literature's power to address historical trauma and cultivate moral and sensual passions. From ancient historical records through the modernization and globalization of Chinese literature, Knight draws on lively examples to underscore the close relationship between ethics and aesthetics, as well as the diversity of Chinese thought. Knight also illuminates the role of elite patronage; the ways literature has served the interests of specific groups; and questions of canonization, language, nationalism, and cross-cultural understanding. The book includes Chinese characters for names, titles, and key terms.
Review
"Very much to the point, starts in antiquity." --Tyler Cowen, The New York Times Magazine ("A Really Short Book Review" section)
"Sabina Knight has managed to square the circle in presenting a lucid and engaging survey of the main trends, authors and works of three thousand years of Chinese literature up to the present, striking the right balance between concrete example and general analysis, in such a short compass." --Wilt L. Idema, Professor of Chinese Literature, Harvard University
About the Author
Sabina Knight is Associate Professor of Chinese and Comparative Literature at Smith College and the author of
The Heart of Time: Moral Agency in Twentieth-Century Chinese Fiction.
Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: Foundations: Ethics, Parables, and Fish
Chapter 2: Poetry and Poetics: Landscapes, Allusions, and Alcohol
Chapter 3: Classical Narrative: History, Jottings, and Stories of the Strange
Chapter 4: Vernacular Drama and Fiction: Gardens, Bandits, and Dreams
Chapter 5: Modern and Contemporary Literature: Trauma, Movements, and Bus Stops
References
Further Reading
Websites
Index