Abstract
This article is a condensed version of the general introduction to A Companion to Modern Chinese Literature and covers three agendas. First, it delineates the parameters of modern Chinese literature by discussing its three composite terms. Second, it reviews the academic institutionalization of modern Chinese literature, especially its development in North America. Third, it provides a framework of "history and geography" for A Companion to Modern Chinese Literature. The first section on "history and geography" tracks the historical development of modern Chinese literature in different geopolitical areas. The second section on "genres and types" reviews key major genres (poetry, fiction, drama, and prose) and other types (translated literature, women's writing, popular fiction, and literature of ethnic minorities). The third section on "culture and media" examines the impact on literature from aesthetics, language, regions, cities as well as visual arts, print and internet technologies. The fourth section on "issues and debates" focuses on literary trends, sexuality, the body, memory and trauma as well as the separate developments of Chinese scholarship and English scholarship. The conclusion covers key issues, author studies, and literary debates of the recent decades.
First Page
39
Last Page
60
Recommended Citation
Yingjin, Zhang. 2016. "English Scholarship on Modern Chinese Literature in the Past Fifty Years." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 36, (4): pp.39-60. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol36/iss4/10
