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The epic narratives of modern Chinese fiction feature graphic depictions of sex and violence and dark, raunchy comedy, and these novels deeply reflect China's turbulent recent history
List of contents
Preface 1. Introduction: Chinese Visions of History and DystopiaChina's "New Historical Novel"Five Traditions of the Global Dystopian NovelThe Dystopian Novel in Post-Mao ChinaOther Narratives of Modern Chinese History: OfficialOther Narratives of Modern Chinese History: NonofficialThe Writers2. Discomforts of Temporal AnomieLingering Temporal Ambiguity in China's New Historical Novels and NovellasSpecifying the Dates, but Defamiliarizing the EraCreating Present-Day Myths in a Time out of TimeFilm Adaptations and Allegory3. Projections of Historical RepetitionDystopian Cyclicalism in a Lyric Historical Mode: Li Rui's Silver CitySocial Decline in a Larger Symbolic Miasma: Zhang Wei's The Ancient ShipThe Wheel of Life: Mo Yan's Life and Death Are Wearing Me OutRecurrence and Decline Contending with Nostalgia: Wang Anyi's The Song of Everlasting SorrowCircularity and Cultural Pessimism in Han Shaogong's A Dictionary of MaqiaoRecurrent Decline in Ge Fei's Southlands TrilogyUtopia into Dystopia: A Recurring Pattern4. Alienation from the GroupAlienation from the "Community"The Family: A PrisonRays of Hope: Friends and Collaborators5. Anarchy: Social, Moral, and CosmicEternal Dearth of Social PeaceAbsence of a Center: Of a Leader, a Capital, a Guiding Ethic"Human Nature" Unmasked as Animal NatureMagical RealismMagic and Fantasy in China's New Historical Novels6. Conclusion: The End of History, Dystopia, and "New" Historical Novels?The Death of Utopia and Dystopia?Historical Novels in a Postmodern or Post-postmodern WorldList of Chinese CharactersNotesBibliography Index
About the author
Jeffrey C. Kinkley is professor of history at St. John's University in New York City. His intellectual history and biographical writings focus on the early-twentieth-century writings of Shen Congwen, Xiao Qian, Chen Xuezhao, and their contemporaries. He has also written on recent Chinese fiction about crime, corruption, and the law. He is the author of Corruption and Realism in Late Socialist China: The Return of the Political Novel and Chinese Justice, the Fiction: Law and Literature in Modern China and the translator of Selected Short Stories of Shen Congwen.
Summary
The epic narratives of modern Chinese fiction feature graphic depictions of sex and violence and dark, raunchy comedy, and these novels deeply reflect China’s turbulent recent history
