Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-232) and index.
Contents:
Introduction: South-North-South -- Unsettling the violence of comparison -- What is rising there in the east? -- Folklore, (Il)literacy, and cyclical realism -- Sakuntala in China -- Epilogue: After 1962: the ongoing literary work of mourning.
Summary:
"Examines how India's colonization, its struggle for independence, and its leadership in the earliest iteration of Third Worldism inspired Chinese intellectuals and literary figures to develop literary forms and modes of address that negotiated the legacies of colonialism. Examining historical interactions between Chinese and Indian writers alongside Chinese readings about India and of Indian literature, this book focuses on major modern Chinese poets, novelists, and translators such as Xu Dishan, Bing Xin, and Ji Xianlin, as they engaged with Indian paragons, both modern and premodern, such as Kalidasa, Lal Behari Dey, and Rabindranath Tagore. From imperialism to decolonization, India in the Chinese Literary Imagination traces what would be perceived today as one of the earliest South-South literary spheres: the hopes it inspired, the literary rejuvenation it launched, and the shadow of the North which relentlessly haunted its struggles. While previous studies have highlighted the significance of contacts with Japan for inspiring the rise of China's national culture, this book reorients the usual China-Japan route by exploring how interactions with Indian writers and texts significantly shaped modern Chinese poetry, fiction, and drama. Shifting from the top-down model by which modern literature traveled from Europe to Japan and then to China, India in the Chinese Literary Imagination offers a perspective from the Global South, unearthing regional, transnational networks that were brought into existence through literary practice. Neither celebrating the decolonization solidarity project nor condemning it as failure, this book focuses on literary expression to reveal how literature captures both the dreams and the immense difficulties of breaking free from imperialist knowledge structures"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.