The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature - by Kirk Denton (Paperback)

About the Book

The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature features more than fifty short essays on specific writers and literary trends from the Qing period (1895-1911) to the present. Both a teaching tool and a go-to research companion, this volume is a one-of-a-kind resource for mastering modern literature in the Chinese-speaking world.

Book Synopsis

The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature features more than fifty short essays on specific writers and literary trends from the Qing period (1895-1911) to the present. The volume opens with thematic essays on the politics and ethics of writing literary history, the formation of the canon, the relationship between language and form, the role of literary institutions and communities, the effects of censorship, the representation of the Chinese diaspora, the rise and meaning of Sinophone literature, and the role of different media in the development of literature. Subsequent essays focus on authors, their works, and the schools with which they were aligned, featuring key names, titles, and terms in English and in Chinese characters. Woven throughout are pieces on late Qing fiction, popular entertainment fiction, martial arts fiction, experimental theater, post-Mao avant-garde poetry, post-martial law fiction from Taiwan, contemporary genre fiction from China, and recent Internet literature. The volume includes essays on such authors as Liang Qichao, Lu Xun, Shen Congwen, Eileen Chang, Jin Yong, Mo Yan, Wang Anyi, Gao Xingjian, and Yan Lianke. Both a teaching tool and a go-to research companion, this volume is a one-of-a-kind resource for mastering modern literature in the Chinese-speaking world.

Review Quotes

The Columbia Companion is a very stimulating guide to modern Chinese literature. More than that, it is a landmark work.... No other single volume has presented this range of literature and this level of critical introduction. Whether as teachers or as research scholars, we should not overlook this contribution to our field.--Edward Mansfield Gunn "Modern Chinese Literature and Culture"

The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature is as close to an all-purpose work as we are likely to have. A broad-based introduction to the literary offerings and studies of modern Chinese literature for newcomers; a reference work for specialists; and a showcase for the best veteran and young scholars in the field. An indispensable tool.--Howard Goldblatt, coeditor of The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature

The field of modern Chinese literature has grown immensely in recent decades. Only collaboration among many scholars can encompass it. The Columbia Companion to Modern Chinese Literature does this, but it is much more than a reference book. It is a kaleidoscope of deft and charming essays that provide insight as well as background for students at all levels. The book will be invaluable in teaching.--Perry Link, University of California, Riverside

About the Author

Kirk A. Denton is professor of Chinese literature at the Ohio State University. His edited books include Modern Chinese Literary Thought: Writings on Literature, 1893-1945 (1996) and Literary Societies of Republican China (2008). He is author of The Problematic of Self in Modern Chinese Literature: Hu Feng and Lu Ling (1998) and Exhibiting the Past: Historical Memory and the Politics of Museums in Postsocialist China (2014). Denton is also editor of the journal Modern Chinese Literature and Culture and manager of the MCLC Resource Center (u.osu.edu/mclc/).