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| No. 136 |
| ISBN
978-90-5789-106-9 |
| 158 pp |
| Leiden 2005 |
| Price:
€ 27,50 |
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this book |
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Leaving
the World to Enter the World. Han Shaogong and Chinese Root-Seeking
Literature
Mark Leenhouts
Leaving the World
to Enter the World focuses on the fictional and theoretical
writings of Han Shaogong, one of the most striking voices
in contemporary Chinese literature. Han played a central role
in the root-seeking trend that dominated the literary
scene of the Peoples Republic of China in the mid-1980s.
His work has won him acclaim from a wide range of readers
in Chinese and other languages, a highlight being the 1996
novel Dictionary of Maqiao.
Critics have labeled Han the leader of a nationalist movement
in search of a cultural identity. Mark Leenhouts shows that
Hans role is much more complex, demonstrating that his
literary practice is a highly individual, creative continuation
of Chinese tradition. Hans personal style transcends
the narrow boundaries of root-seeking as it has been portrayed
in literary histories and criticism to date.
This rectification of the one-sided image of Han Shaogong
has profound implications for the significance of root-seeking
literature, and for questions of tradition and modernity that
have been among the most hotly debated topics in Chinese literary,
intellectual and political thought throughout the 20th
century.
Leaving the World to Enter the World does justice to
the individuality of the literary author by taking the intrinsic
structure of the literary work as its starting point. Leenhouts
close textual analysis, as intelligent and pragmatic as it
is sensitive, will help counterbalance the socio-political
orientation typical of much recent research. By seeing Han
Shaogong as a writer rather than a mouthpiece of historical
forces, this book opens up new perspectives for enjoying his
literary mastery.
(In
English, 158 pp. ill.)
Mark
Leenhouts (1969) is a sinologist trained at the Universities
of Leiden and Paris VII. An accomplished translator and literary
critic, he is among the founding editors of Het trage vuur,
a journal of Chinese literature in Dutch translation.
'Leenhoust
brief book on the whole has great merits, patiently disentangling
the many complexities of cultural and literary root seeking,
while simultaneously, by way of textual analysis, giving fresh
emphasis to familiar critical interpretations. (...) the study
provides very useful reference points for students and scholars
of Chinese literature.' - Cosima Bruno in: The
China Quarterly (2005).
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| No. 132 |
| ISBN
978-90-5789-096-3
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| 304 pp |
| Leiden 2004 |
| Price:
€ 37,50 |
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this book |
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The
Invention of a Discourse. Woman's Poetry from Contemporary
China
Jeanne Hong Zhang
Womens
poetry is a critical part of the contemporary Chinese literary
landscape. Its impact and its diversity have attracted much
attention in China and elsewhere. The Invention of a Discourse
is the first book-length study that relates women poets
to one another in terms of shared experience, subject matter,
poetic technique and language. It also highlights interfaces
with their international surroundings. The book diversifies
and enriches current scholarship on Chinese and comparative
literature from textual, intertextual and contextual perspectives.
The author presents case studies of works by prominent women
poets from the 1980s and 1990s on five interrelated themesthe
female body, the mirror, night, death and taking flight. Building
on a framework drawn from literary theory and gender studies,
she identifies textual evidence to demonstrate how contemporary
Chinese women poets have invented a discourse of their own
that involves the creative emulation of role models, most
notably Sylvia Plath and Zhai Yongming. This book examines
the ways in which Chinese women poets channel gender experience
into creativity, and shows the role that individual poetics
can play in determining the orientation of a national poetics.
Jeanne
Hong Zhang (Zhang Xiaohong) studied English and American literature,
applied linguistics and Chinese literature at Hunan University,
Hunan Normal University and Leiden University. She is senior
lecturer in comparative literature at Shenzhen University.
(In English, 304 pp.)
Review
of The Invention of a discourse
'Zhang
clearly demonstrates that the analysis in this book is informed
by a formidable knowledge of both Chinese and Western literature.
(...) the result is a book that is rich in its findings. Jeanne
Hong Zhang's book will undoubtedly find itself on the reading
lists of every modern and contemporary Chinese literature
course.' Mabel Lee in: The China Journal, issue 55
(Jan. 2006)
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| No. 126 |
| ISBN
978-90-5789-090-1 |
| 258 pp |
| Leiden 2003 |
| Price:
€ 37,50 |
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this book |
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Heroes
and Heritage. The Protagonist in Indian Literature and Film
Theo Damsteegt (ed.)
An analysis of the role of the protagonist
is central to text interpretation. Providing examples of such
analyses, the fourteen articles in this volume deal with the
protagonist in mainly 20th century North Indian films and
literary texts. Basically, they aim to answer two questions:
what techniques have been used by the author (or director)
to present a specific protagonist, and what ideas or even
ideology may have inspired the author to create that character.
The latter question, concerning the view of life or society
that has consciously or unconsciously influenced the creator
of a South Asian text or film, has occasionally been investigated
in the past, too, but here answers are argued on the basis
of an analysis of narrative techniques rather than an intuitive
approach.
Besides a historical survey of protagonists in 20th century
Hindi literature, this volume offers detailed discussions
of a wide variety of 'heroes' - among them children, aged
men, courtesans, women fighting for Independence, and Urdu
poets.
The literary texts analysed here belong to various genres
(novel, short story, drama, poetry), and the papers demonstrate
several analytical methods, such as narratology, film analysis,
feminist literary analysis, and postcolonial studies.
(In English, 258 pp.)
Another
book by Damsteegt |
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| No. 119 |
| ISBN
978-90-5789-081-9 |
| 354 pp |
| Leiden 2003 |
| Price:
€ 47,50 |
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this book |
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Metamorphosen
des Epos. Sirat al-Mugahidin (Sirat al-Amira Dat al Himma)
zwischen Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit
Claudia Ott
Am Fuss der Kutubiyya-Moschee in Marrakesch/Marokko
hielt bis zum Jahr 2000 der Erzähler Si Mloud seine öffentlichen
Vorlesungen arabischer Epen ab. Eines der Werke seines Repertoires
war die Sirat al-Mugahidin, auch unter dem Namen der Protagonistin,
der frommen Kämpferin Dat al-Himma, bekannt. Dieses monumentale
Epos - seine Ausgaben umfassen bis zu 81 Bände –
gehört zu den ältesten Vertretern der arabischen
Epik (sira ša`biyya), die bereits im 12. Jahrhundert
erwähnt werden und deren erhaltene Handschriften aus
der Zeit um 1400 stammen. Leser, Erzähler, und Bibliotheksbesitzer
haben diese Handschriften im Lauf der Jahrhunderte immer wieder
umgestaltet und ihre Spuren darin hinterlassen.
Dieses Buch beleuchtet eine bedeutende Textgattung der populären
arabischen Literatur und ihre Metamorphosen zwischen Mündlichkeit
und Schriftlichkeit.
(In German, 354 pp. incl. figs., photogr., bibl.)
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