Modern Algerian literature, unique among Arab national literary traditions, features a cultural blend of Arabic, Berber and French influences. The literature reflects their love of Algerian culture and thought, and th...Modern Algerian literature, unique among Arab national literary traditions, features a cultural blend of Arabic, Berber and French influences. The literature reflects their love of Algerian culture and thought, and their revolt against French colonialism. The Algerian-born Arab author Muhammad Dib （1920-2003） wrote in French, mainly about the Algerian struggle for independence. Expelled in 1959 for supporting the Algerian revolution, he settled in Paris. Considered a pioneer of Algerian literature, he was the first Arab Algerian to write Western-style novels. His Algerian trilogy, La Grande Maison, L ＇lncendie, and Le Mktier ~ tisser, was published between 1952 and 1957. Though autobiographical, the books trace both rural and urban life in pre-revolutionary times. Dib＇s 1959 thematically driven novel Un Otd Africaine （An African Summer）, analyzed here, rather than depicting the Algerian revolution itself, describes its effect on the characters and their lives. Nevertheless, the novel, framed around a cross-section of Algerian society, reflects colonial government abuses and the common people＇s sacrifices for their dream of independence. Dib also depicts France＇s colonialist attitudes as a betrayal of the ideals of the French Revolution and claims to humanitarian values.展开更多
This essay reflects on the reception of Lu Xun＇s short story ＂The Loner＂ （Gudu zhe, alternately translated as ＂The Lone Wolf, The Misanthrope,＂ and ＂The Isolate＂） in American classrooms, where students have s...This essay reflects on the reception of Lu Xun＇s short story ＂The Loner＂ （Gudu zhe, alternately translated as ＂The Lone Wolf, The Misanthrope,＂ and ＂The Isolate＂） in American classrooms, where students have sometimes wondered whether that character might be read as ＂queer.＂ It suggests that the title character＇s unusual and self-imposed celibacy is probably best explained by his belief, in a very general sense, in the foundational values of zoology as practiced in Japan and China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and thus that the story may be a better gateway to understanding the ways in which Lu Xun envisioned the mixed impact of new political economies on private life than a source text for queer studies. At the same time, however, this essay emphasizes that in ＂The Loner,＂ as elsewhere, accounting for the ＂heterosexual imperative＂ of early zoology （e.g., with its emphases on animal husbandry, propagation, reproduction） can have meaningful consequences for ＂queering＂ interpretations of received texts from literature, history of science, and beyond.展开更多
Literature is the art of language, so in the light of the profound influence of linguistic transformation on the development of modem Chinese literary forms it is appropriate to present the history of the development ...Literature is the art of language, so in the light of the profound influence of linguistic transformation on the development of modem Chinese literary forms it is appropriate to present the history of the development of modern Chinese literature as the art of language. Modern Chinese literature starts with the linguistic transformation of the May Fourth Movement＇s rejection of classical Chinese and promotion of the vernacular. This language revolution and the transformation of literary language during each subsequent historical period have exerted a profound influence on the overall development of modern Chinese literature, including literary forms, and hence have become an inner source of the development and evolution of modern Chinese literary forms and of the shaping of their main characteristics. An in-depth discussion of the interaction between linguistic transformation and the development of modem Chinese literary forms as well as the roles governing this process will not only disclose the universal linguistic context of literary creation created by the transformation of language but will also enable us to find the historical sources of the phenomena of literary genres and forms, writers＇ choice of literary styles, the formal characteristics of literary works, etc., and will offer a correct explanation and evaluation of the May Fourth vernacular movement and the subsequent series of new literary forms andstyles. This is instrumental to achieving a better summation of the experience and lessons of the development of modem Chinese literary forms and to finding historical clues to the development of our present-day literary forms.展开更多
This article focuses on the strategies that literature and cultural criticism adopt to represent trauma in comparison to a current medical definition. The contemporary medical definition, trauma as post-traumatic stre...This article focuses on the strategies that literature and cultural criticism adopt to represent trauma in comparison to a current medical definition. The contemporary medical definition, trauma as post-traumatic stress disorder （PTSD）, is the most narrow and specific definition to discuss trauma. The discourse of medicine does not necessarily match those of literature and cultural criticism, nor need they conform to each other. PTSD includes a collection of symptoms, any one of which might not have anything to do with traumatic experience, but which together point with increasing intensity to a psychological syndrome caused by traumatic shock. Although this is historically a recently defined syndrome （1980）, its features had long before attracted attention and been recorded under other terms and diagnoses. Although Chinese literature is only occasionally given to psychological realism, we do find occasional descriptions that strongly suggest aspects of the syndrome. Also, the aims and the needs of medicine and literature or cultural criticism are not necessarily the same, but it is important to explore in greater detail the aims and the needs of literature and cultural criticism.展开更多
文摘Modern Algerian literature, unique among Arab national literary traditions, features a cultural blend of Arabic, Berber and French influences. The literature reflects their love of Algerian culture and thought, and their revolt against French colonialism. The Algerian-born Arab author Muhammad Dib （1920-2003） wrote in French, mainly about the Algerian struggle for independence. Expelled in 1959 for supporting the Algerian revolution, he settled in Paris. Considered a pioneer of Algerian literature, he was the first Arab Algerian to write Western-style novels. His Algerian trilogy, La Grande Maison, L ＇lncendie, and Le Mktier ~ tisser, was published between 1952 and 1957. Though autobiographical, the books trace both rural and urban life in pre-revolutionary times. Dib＇s 1959 thematically driven novel Un Otd Africaine （An African Summer）, analyzed here, rather than depicting the Algerian revolution itself, describes its effect on the characters and their lives. Nevertheless, the novel, framed around a cross-section of Algerian society, reflects colonial government abuses and the common people＇s sacrifices for their dream of independence. Dib also depicts France＇s colonialist attitudes as a betrayal of the ideals of the French Revolution and claims to humanitarian values.
文摘This essay reflects on the reception of Lu Xun＇s short story ＂The Loner＂ （Gudu zhe, alternately translated as ＂The Lone Wolf, The Misanthrope,＂ and ＂The Isolate＂） in American classrooms, where students have sometimes wondered whether that character might be read as ＂queer.＂ It suggests that the title character＇s unusual and self-imposed celibacy is probably best explained by his belief, in a very general sense, in the foundational values of zoology as practiced in Japan and China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and thus that the story may be a better gateway to understanding the ways in which Lu Xun envisioned the mixed impact of new political economies on private life than a source text for queer studies. At the same time, however, this essay emphasizes that in ＂The Loner,＂ as elsewhere, accounting for the ＂heterosexual imperative＂ of early zoology （e.g., with its emphases on animal husbandry, propagation, reproduction） can have meaningful consequences for ＂queering＂ interpretations of received texts from literature, history of science, and beyond.
文摘Literature is the art of language, so in the light of the profound influence of linguistic transformation on the development of modem Chinese literary forms it is appropriate to present the history of the development of modern Chinese literature as the art of language. Modern Chinese literature starts with the linguistic transformation of the May Fourth Movement＇s rejection of classical Chinese and promotion of the vernacular. This language revolution and the transformation of literary language during each subsequent historical period have exerted a profound influence on the overall development of modern Chinese literature, including literary forms, and hence have become an inner source of the development and evolution of modern Chinese literary forms and of the shaping of their main characteristics. An in-depth discussion of the interaction between linguistic transformation and the development of modem Chinese literary forms as well as the roles governing this process will not only disclose the universal linguistic context of literary creation created by the transformation of language but will also enable us to find the historical sources of the phenomena of literary genres and forms, writers＇ choice of literary styles, the formal characteristics of literary works, etc., and will offer a correct explanation and evaluation of the May Fourth vernacular movement and the subsequent series of new literary forms andstyles. This is instrumental to achieving a better summation of the experience and lessons of the development of modem Chinese literary forms and to finding historical clues to the development of our present-day literary forms.
文摘This article focuses on the strategies that literature and cultural criticism adopt to represent trauma in comparison to a current medical definition. The contemporary medical definition, trauma as post-traumatic stress disorder （PTSD）, is the most narrow and specific definition to discuss trauma. The discourse of medicine does not necessarily match those of literature and cultural criticism, nor need they conform to each other. PTSD includes a collection of symptoms, any one of which might not have anything to do with traumatic experience, but which together point with increasing intensity to a psychological syndrome caused by traumatic shock. Although this is historically a recently defined syndrome （1980）, its features had long before attracted attention and been recorded under other terms and diagnoses. Although Chinese literature is only occasionally given to psychological realism, we do find occasional descriptions that strongly suggest aspects of the syndrome. Also, the aims and the needs of medicine and literature or cultural criticism are not necessarily the same, but it is important to explore in greater detail the aims and the needs of literature and cultural criticism.
