The city in modern Chinese literature & film

This study explores the ways in which the city and urban life have been represented in modern Chinese literature and film. The author has three aims: to trace the literary and filmic configurations (i.e., symbolic constructions) of the city in modern China; to investigate the ways the city is placed in an ambivalent - if not negative - light in these configurations; and to work toward an understanding of how one can study the nature of the city/country problematic in modern Chinese literary history. The book draws upon many literary and filmic texts that have been either previously ignored or deemed of no importance, and presents them in such a way that they - together with certain canonical works interpreted from new perspectives - point to an important structure of urban imagination in modern China. Throughout, the author draws upon theoretical insights from a wide variety of disciplines - anthropology, history, psychology, sociology, as well as literature, film, and cultural studies - to illuminate particular issues.

Year

1996

Language

Chinese

Series

Hai wai Zhongguo yan jiu cong shu. Hai wai xue zi xi lie

Publisher

Jiangsu ren min chu ban she

Editions

1

Pages

320

ISBN

9787214044341

Data source: Wikidata