Placing the Modern Chinese Vernacular in Transnational Literature

by Zhou, Gang

• ISBN13: 9780230109391
• ISBN10: 023010939X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-01-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

1895-1925 was a critical historical period in Chinese literary history, whenbaihua(the vernacular) was elevated to become the national language andwenyan(classical Chinese) was eliminated from many literary practices, overturning the long-established linguistic hierarchy. This is the first book to concentrate not only on the triumph of the vernacular in modern China but also on the critical role of the rise of the vernacular in world literature, invoking parallel cases from countries throughout Europe and Asia.

Author Biography

Gang Zhou is an Assistant Professor of Chinese at Louisiana State University. She has published in PMLA and MLN, among others and is the co-editor of Other Renaissances: A New Approach to World Literature.

Table of Contents

Introduction * The Language of Utopia * The Chinese Renaissance * The Shaky House * “The Vernacular Only” Writing Mode * Epilogue