Socialist Cosmopolitanism: The Chinese Literary Universe, 1945-1965 (Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University)

__Socialist Cosmopolitanism__ offers an innovative interpretation of literary works from the Mao era that reads Chinese socialist literature as world literature. As Nicolai Volland demonstrates, after 1949 China engaged with the world beyond its borders in a variety of ways and on many levels―politically, economically, and culturally. Far from rejecting the worldliness of earlier eras, the young People's Republic developed its own cosmopolitanism. Rather than a radical break with the past, Chinese socialist literature should be seen as an integral and important chapter in China's long search to find a place within world literature. __Socialist Cosmopolitanism__ revisits a range of genres, from poetry and land reform novels to science fiction and children's literature, and shows how Chinese writers and readers alike saw their own literary production as part of a much larger literary universe. This literary space, reaching from Beijing to Berlin, from Prague to Pyongyang, from Warsaw to Moscow to Hanoi, allowed authors and texts to travel, reinventing the meaning of world literature. Chinese socialist literature was not driven solely by politics but by an ambitious―but ultimately doomed―attempt to redraw the literary world map. "The incalculable influence of Alexander von Humboldt (1769 1859) on biology, botany, geology, and meteorology deservedly earned him the reputation as the world's most illustrious scientist before Charles Darwin. From 1799 to 1804, Humboldt's breath-taking explorations of Mexico and South America are akin to Europe's second "discovery" of the New World--this time, a scientific one. His Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain is a foundational document about Mexico and its cultures and is still widely consulted by anthropologists, geographers, and historians. In Humboldt's Mexico Myron Echenberg presents a straightforward guide with historical and cultural context to Humboldt's travels in Mexico. Humboldt packed a lifetime of scientific studies into one daunting year, and soon after published a four-volume account of his findings. His adventures range widely from inspections of colonial silver mines, hikes to the summits of volcanoes, meticulous examination of secret Spanish colonial archives in Mexico City, and scientific discussions of archaeological sites of pre-Hispanic Indigenous cultures. Echenberg traces Humboldt's journey, as described in his publications, his diary, and other writings, across the heartland of Mexico, while also pursuing Humboldt's life, his science, his experiences, his influence on scholars of his time and after, and the various efforts by others to honour and at times to denigrate his legacy. Part history, part travelogue, and always highly readable and informative, Humboldt's Mexico is an engaging account of a gifted scientist and visionary that ranges across topics as diverse and broad as the Romantic-era natural history." Socialist Cosmopolitanism" offers an innovative interpretation of literature from the Mao era, proposing to read Chinese socialist literature as world literature. China after 1949 engaged with the world beyond its borders in myriad ways and on many levels-political and economic, cultural as well as literary. Far from rejecting the worldliness of earlier eras, Nicolai Volland demonstrates, the young People's Republic developed its own cosmopolitanism. Rather than a radical break with the past, Chinese socialist literature should be seen as an integral and important chapter of China's long search to find a place within world literature. Socialist Cosmopolitanism revisits a range of genres, from poetry and land reform novels to science fiction and children's literature, and shows how Chinese writers and readers alike saw their own literary production as part of a much larger literary universe. This literary space, reaching from Beijing to Berlin, from Prague to Pyongyang, from Warsaw to Moscow to Hanoi, allowed authors and texts to travel, in the course reinventing the meaning of world literature. Chinese socialist literature is driven by a hugely ambitious-and ultimately doomed-attempt to redraw the literary world map Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Introduction 16 1 The Politics Of Texts In Motion 35 2 The Geopoetics Of Land Reform In Northeast Asia 54 3 Fictionalizing The International Working Class 77 4 Soviet Spaceships In Socialist China 111 5 Sons And Daughters Of The Revolution 139 6 Mapping The Brave New World Of Literature 168 Conclusion 202 Notes 210 Glossary Of Chinese Characters 262 Bibliography 266 Index 286