The Lyrical in Epic Time
Modern Chinese Intellectuals and Artists Through the 1949 Crisis David Der-wei Wang Us i n g t he lyri cal to ret hi n k Chi n ese mo dern i t y, w h i le emp hasi z i n g Chi n ese lyri ci sm’ s deep ro ots i n i ts own n at i ve t radi t i o n s.
“Wang moves with ease and flair from one discipline to another as he delineates the complex dynamics of the evolving cultural lyricism in midtwentieth-century China. No other published book in the field can rival this in breadth, depth, and goals.” —Zong-Qi Cai, University of Illinois
“By bringing energetic questioning and immense erudition to bear on lyricism, Wang succeeds in throwing a brilliant new light onto crucial aspects of modern Chinese experience in ways that demand a reconfiguration of our understanding.” —Susan Daruvala, Cambridge University
Although the lyrical may seem like an unusual form for representing China’s social and political crises in the mid-twentieth century, David Der-wei Wang contends that national cataclysm and mass movements intensified Chinese lyricism in extraordinary ways. He calls attention to the vigor and variety of Chinese lyricism at an unlikely historical juncture and the precarious consequences it brought about: betrayal, self-abjuration, suicide, and silence. Above all, he ponders the relevance of such a lyrical calling of the past century to our time.
The writers, artists, and intellectuals discussed in this book all took lyricism as a way to explore selfhood in relation to solidarity, the role of the artist in history, and the potential for poetry to illuminate crisis. They experimented with poetry, fiction, intellectual treatise, political manifesto, film, theater, painting, calligraphy, and music. Wang’s expansive research also traces the invocation of the lyrical in the work of contemporary Western critics. From their contested theoretical and ideological stances, Martin Heidegger, Theodor Adorno, Cleanth Brooks, Paul de Man, and many others used lyricism to critique their perilous, epic time. The Chinese case only intensifies the permeable nature of lyrical discourse, forcing us to reengage with the dominant role of revolution and enlightenment in shaping Chinese—and global—modernity. David Der-wei Wang
is Edward C. Henderson Professor of Chinese
and Comparative Literature at Harvard University. His works include The Monster That Is History: History, Violence, and Fictional Writing in Twentieth-Century China; Fin-de-siècle Splendor: Repressed Modernity in Late Qing Fiction, 1849–1911; and Fictional Realism in Twentieth$60.00 / £41.50 cloth 978-0-231-17046-8 $59.99 / £41.50 ebook 978-0-231-53857-2 J a n u a r y 528 pages L iterary C riticism / C hinese S tudies
All Rights: Columbia University Press
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Century China.