The Routledge Companion to Yan Lianke (Routledge Literature Companions)

Yan Lianke is one of the most important, prolific, and controversial writers in contemporary China. This companion presents a collection of critical essays by leading scholars from around the world, organised into some of the key themes of his work: Mythorealism; Absurdity; and History, as well as the challenges to translating his work. Cover Endorsements Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page CONTENTS List of illustrations List of contributors Foreword: Reflections on darkness Preface: Bounded experience and unbounded realness Editorial preface Acknowledgment Editorial acknowledgment PART I: Mythorealism and censorship 1. Yan Lianke’s mythorealist representation of the country and the city 2. Building Chinese reality with language and metaphor: From socialist realism to mythorealism 3. Mythorealism, the absurd, and existential despair in Yan Lianke’s memoir and fiction: Confronting the fate of Sisyphus in modern China’s historical traumas 4. Magical realism, mythorealism, and the representation of history in the works of Yan Lianke 5. Mythorealism or pararealism? Yan Lianke’s short fiction as a key to enter the author’s representational world 6. Censure and censorship: Prohibition and presence of Yan Lianke’s writings in China PART II: Absurdity and spirituality 7. The absurd as method: The Chinese absurdist hero, enchanted power, and the alienated poor in Yan Lianke’s military literature 8. Yan Lianke and Italo Calvino on the absurdity of urban life 9. “Inverse Theology” in Yan Lianke’s The Four Books and Franz Kafka’s The Trial 10. Elements of modernism and the grotesque in Yan Lianke’s early fiction 11. Representing the intellectuals in Yan Lianke’s recent writing: An exile of the soul 12. The dream, the disease, and the disaster: on Yan Lianke’s Dream of Ding Village 13. Yan Lianke’s novel Heart Sutra: The kiss of the rock and the egg 14. The redemption of the peach blossom spring: An examination of the human condition in Yan Lianke’s Zhongyuan (Zhongguo gushi) PART III: History and gender 15. Creating a literary space to debate the Mao era: The fictionalization of the Great Leap Forward in Yan Lianke’s Four Books 16. Disability, revolution, and historiography: Grandma Mao Zhi in Lenin’s Kisses 17. Corrective catachresis: Capitalist mystification derailed in The Explosion Chronicles and “The Story of Fertile Town” 18. Reconstructing the self through herstory: On Yan Lianke’s Tamen (Shes) 19. Female labor, the third sex, and excrescence in Yan Lianke’s nonfiction tamen 20. A geocritical study of Yan Lianke’s balou mountain stories: The utopian cognitive mapping in post-1949 China 21. An ecocritical approach to Yan Lianke’s Literary Works 22. Paratextual encounters in Yan Lianke’s fictional worlds: Reading between the lines PART IV: Translation and reception 23. Ideological patterns in the critical reception of Yan Lianke: A comparative approach 24. The challenge of translating Yan Lianke’s literary creation 25. Yan Lianke in Basque: Notes on translating sensory images 26. The translation and reception of Yan Lianke in France 27. The treacherous “news that stays news”: The Four Books in Czech translation 28. Translating the Chinese cultural other: Yan Lianke’s Shouhuo in English translation 29. The translation and reception of Yan Lianke in Japan 30. The translation and reception of Yan Lianke’s fiction in Vietnam 31. The reception and significance of Yan Lianke’s works in Taiwan 32. The reception of Yan Lianke in Hong Kong Complete Chinese bibliography of Yan Lianke in chronological order Index "Yan Lianke is one of the most important, prolific, and controversial writers in contemporary China. At the forefront of the "mythorealist" Chinese avant-garde and using absurdist humour and grotesque satire, Yan's works have caught much critical attention not only in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, but also around the world. His critiques of modern China under both Mao-era socialism and contemporary capitalism draw on a deep knowledge of history, folklore and spirituality. This companion presents a collection of critical essays by leading scholars of Yan Lianke from around the world, organised into some of the key themes of his work: Mythorealism; Absurdity & Spirituality; and History & Gender, as well as the challenges of translating his work into English and other languages. With an Introduction by Yan Lianke himself, this is a vital and authoritative resource for students and scholars looking to understand Yan's works from both his own perspective, and those of leading critics"-- Provided by publisher. Yan Lianke is one of the most important, prolific, and controversial writers in contemporary China.At the forefront of the “mythorealist” Chinese avant-garde and using absurdist humor and grotesque satire, Yan's works have caught much critical attention not only in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan but also around the world. His critiques of modern China under both Mao-era socialism and contemporary capitalism draw on a deep knowledge of history, folklore, and spirituality.This companion presents a collection of critical essays by leading scholars of Yan Lianke from around the world, organized into some of the key themes of his work: Mythorealism; Absurdity and Spirituality; and History and Gender, as well as the challenges of translating his work into English and other languages. With an essay written by Yan Lianke himself, this is a vital and authoritative resource for students and scholars looking to understand Yan's works from both his own perspective and those of leading critics. Yan Lianke is one of the most important, prolific, and controversial writers in contemporary China. At the forefront of the mythorealist Chinese avant-garde and using absurdist humor and grotesque satire, Yans works have caught much critical attention not only in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan but also around the world. His critiques of modern China under both Mao-era socialism and contemporary capitalism draw on a deep knowledge of history, folklore, and spirituality. This companion presents a collection of critical essays by leading scholars of Yan Lianke from around the world, organized into some of the key themes of his work: Mythorealism; Absurdity and Spirituality; and History and Gender, as well as the challenges of translating his work into English and other languages. With an essay written by Yan Lianke himself, this is a vital and authoritative resource for students and scholars looking to understand Yans works from both his own perspective and those of leading critics.