Book Description

In The Making of Chinese-Sinophone Literatures as World Literature, Kuei-fen Chiu and Yingjin Zhang aim to bridge the distance between the scholarship of world literature and that of Chinese and Sinophone literary studies. This edited volume advances research on world literature by bringing in new developments in Chinese/Sinophone literatures and adds a much-needed new global perspective on Chinese literary studies beyond the traditional national literature paradigm and its recent critique by Sinophone studies. In addition to a critical mapping of the domains of world literature, Sinophone literature, and world literature in Chinese to delineate the nuanced differences of these three disciplines, the book addresses the issues of translation, genre, and the impact of media and technology on our understanding of “literature” and “literary prestige.” It also provides critical studies of the complicated ways in which Chinese and Sinophone literatures are translated, received, and reinvested across various genres and media, and thus circulate as world literature. The issues taken up by the contributors to this volume promise fruitful polemical interventions in the studies of world literature from the vantage point of Chinese and Sinophone literatures. “An outstanding volume full of insights, with chapters by leading scholars from an admirable range of perspectives, Chiu and Zhang’s The Making of Chinese-Sinophone Literatures as World Literature expertly integrates Chinese and Sinophone studies with world literature scholarship, opening numerous possibilities for future analyses of literature, media, and cultural history.” —Karen L. Thornber, Harvard University “This book is, at once, the best possible introduction to recent debates on world literature from the perspective of Chinese-Sinophone literatures, and a summa critica that thinks through their transcultural drives, global travels, varied worldings, and translational forces. The comparative perspectives gathered here accomplish the necessary and urgent task of reconfiguring both the idea of the world in world literature and the ways we study the inscriptions of Chinese-Sinophone literatures in the world.” —Mariano Siskind, Harvard University