Consuming Literature

by Kong, Shuyu

• ISBN13: 9780804749404
• ISBN10: 080474940X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-12-15
• Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr

Summary

This book examines the changes taking place in literary writing and publishing in contemporary China under the influence of the emerging market economy. It focuses on the revival of literary best sellers in the Chinese book market and the establishment of a best-seller production machine. The author examines how writers have become cultural entrepreneurs, how state publishing houses are now motivated by commercial incentives, and how "second-channel," unofficial publishers and distributors both compete and cooperate with official publishing houses in a dual-track, socialist-capitalist economic system. Taken together, these changes demonstrate how economic development and culture interact in a postsocialist society, in contrast to the way they work in the mature capitalist economies of the West. That economic reforms have affected many aspects of Chinese society is well known, but this is the first comprehensive analysis of market influences in the literary field. This book thus offers a fresh perspective on the inner workings of contemporary Chinese society.

Author Biography

Shuyu Kong is Assistant Professor of Chinese Literature at the University of Alberta’s Department of East Asian Studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction : commercialization and literary best sellers	p. 1
Breaking away : writers as cultural entrepreneurs	p. 11
Publishing houses : creating a best seller machine	p. 37
"Second channel" : book dealers, agents, and cultural studios	p. 65
The economics of privacy : publishing women's writing	p. 95
Translating foreign literature : from elitism to populism	p. 120
Literary journals : between a rock and a hard place	p. 144
Conclusion : literature in a multimedia millennium	p. 170
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