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Literary Theory
Alberto Castelli
The Modernity of Chinese Postmodern Literature A Step Beyond Ideology New York, 2020. XVIII, 290 pp., 10 b/w ill. hb. • ISBN 978-1-4331-7326-4 CHF 98.– / €D 84.95 / €A 87.10 / € 79.20 / £ 64.– / US-$ 94.95 eBook (SUL) • ISBN 978-1-4331-7330-1 CHF 98.– / €D 94.95 / €A 95.– / € 79.20 / £ 64.– / US-$ 94.95
The Modernity of Chinese Postmodern Literature is an unprecedented comparative study of postmodern Chinese literature and continental European modernism. This book deconstructs and reconstructs central works of post1976 Chinese literature and the main texts of European modernism to uncover a striking conceptual similarity between these two literary corpuses. Scholars and postgraduate students in the humanities comprise this work’s primary audience. However, all those interested in contemporary China will find in it an accessible key to decode China’s present and past.
Horst Daemmrich
Self-Realization Analysis of a Primary Literary Theme New York, 2021. VIII, 194 pp. Studies on Themes and Motifs in Literature. Vol. 141 hb. • ISBN 978-1-4331-8725-4 CHF 98.– / €D 84.95 / €A 87.10 / € 79.20 / £ 64.– / US-$ 94.95 eBook (SUL) • ISBN 978-1-4331-8726-1 CHF 98.– / €D 84.95 / €A 87.10 / € 79.20 / £ 64.– / US-$ 94.95
The study of self-realization as a primary literary theme covers a wide range of literature. The journey to selfdiscovery can be represented in many different forms, from novels of development to social criticism and to historical plays. It can provide the core of a basic literary form, such as a fairytale and the decision on crossroads of life. The self as a primary literary element can be identified as an axis of symmetry, similar to a central section of a wheel, which connects to all related themes. The description of space, setting, time, historical moment, and heritage shape all documentation of self-orientation. Thematic developments highlight specific appropriate locations for the unfolding story. By comparing works from different periods and examining manifestations of the theme in American, French, English, and German literature, this study traces the theme of self-realization in the coming-of-age constellation, the acceptance and the criticism of existing social conditions, the attempts to comprehend the past and the current historical conditions, and in utopian visions of the future. While literature has provided singular and unfor-
gettable portraits of figures in works ranging from Bellow, Dickens, Fontane, Goethe, Moliere, Schiller, Grass, and Raabe to Tolstoy or Trollope, it is equally apparent that primary forms of self-realization show a high correlation of recurring patterns. Some features associated with primary thematic emphasis and resolution occur with high frequency. Figures can be conceived of as being capable of intellectual and spiritual growth. Alternately, in a moment of insight, they may persevere in their errors in judgment, the frailty of institutions, or a web of circumstances that impeded their optimal development. In such instances, the action is usually designed to convey a vision of human potential to the reader— and furthermore, raise serious questions about the apparent predetermination of existence.
Monika Fludernik • Henrik Nielsen (eds.)
Travelling Concepts: New Fictionality Studies Berlin, 2020. 184 pp., 2 fig. b/w Literary and Cultural Studies, Theory and the (New) Media. Vol. 3 hb. • ISBN 978-3-631-80599-2 CHF 71.– / €D 59.95 / €A 60.– / € 57.10 / £ 47.– / US-$ 68.95 eBook (SUL) • ISBN 978-3-631-82024-7 CHF 70.– / €D 58.91 / €A 61.71 / € 56.10 / £ 46.– / US-$ 67.95
This volume is co-edited by the director of the Freiburg graduate school “Factual and Fictional Narration” (GRK 1767, Freiburg/Germany) and the director of the Aarhus Centre for Fictionality Studies (University of Aarhus, DK). The collection of essays re-examines the much discussed fact―fiction distinction in light of the current burgeoning of research on fictionality. It provides a forum for ongoing work on fictionality from France, Germany and Denmark and Sweden. By placing discussions of the notion of fictionality in one volume, the editors hope to initiate exchange between the different traditions represented in the essays und to help the task of translating the available concepts and terminologies so they can travel between different models and theoretical frameworks.
