Perception of Contemporary Chinese Literature in Russia

This article attempts to comprehend the perception of contemporary Chinese literature in Russia. One of the main research areas of Russian Sinology focused on the study of Chinese literature is Chinese classical literature and modern literature. However, at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries, the interest for contemporary Chinese literature becomes more and more obvious. In recent years, the translation of contemporary Chinese literary works has been continuously developing. The most typical characteristic of contemporary Chinese literature in the interpretation of Russian sinologists is pluralism, which is understood as the simultaneous existence of various literary trends, ideologies, genres, etc. The author analyzes the main trends of reception in the research of Russian scientists and comes to the conclusion that the most interesting for sinologists is the problem of attention to “People” in contemporary Chinese literature, the problem of tradition and modernity, the works of Chinese women writers.

When Literary Relations End

Of the existing approaches to engaging with world literature, Pascale Casanova’s contribution remains the most prescient and relevant to the contemporary world. In this paper, I examine Casanova’s legacy in the context of contemporary Chinese literature – not only as the Sinophone, Chinese, or diasporic, but also in terms of the diverse genrification and creation of new types of media for literary inscription that border on obliterating the primacy of literary aesthetics. Is this a threat to the literary establishment, as it has been practiced, critiqued, and known in the European lineage? I argue that the literary space has never been in starker contrast with the world space, and that the emergence of a different “world normal” is challenging and fortifying Casanova’s legacy in deeply profound ways. To be examined, among others, are recent debates over world and Sinophone literature, science fiction, internet fiction, and diasporic writings.

“The Limits of My Language Mean the Limits of My World”: Translated Migrations in Xiaolu Guo’s Novels

In the case of migrant writers, the representation of the female body can be considered the most intimate expression of individuality, as well as an expression of the dislocation that often transpires from their stories. In the context of contemporary Chinese literature, which has now become transnational, Xiaolu Guo is a representative example of féminité migrante. Raised in China, she emigrated to the UK as an adult, and relies mainly on the English language to codify her literary creativity. This study focuses on the analysis of the relationship between space and language, and between body and translation. It will explore two novels by Xiaolu Guo through a linguistic/comparative approach and a spatial analysis of the literary text.

Re-evaluation of Chinese Socialist Realism’s Value Directions in Zhang Wei’s “Ancient Ship”

The article conducts a re-evaluation of values of Chinese socialist realism using Zhang Wei's novel “Ancient Ship” (1986) as an example. The novel’s key characters are analyzed in detail, while taking into consideration the values and semantic structures of earlier Chinese novels, the so-called “Red classics” of the 1950s. The narrative’s land reform taking place in rural China is used as a significant example of the re-evaluation of socialist realism’s values and their direction, in comparison with Ding Ling’s “The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River” (1948). Using specific examples, the article reveals that the main directions of the re-evaluation of socialist realism’s values are the author’s critique of the so-called “revolutionary history”, which is demonstrated as being inseparable from violence, chaos, and pursuing personal and clan interests. Zhang Wei achieves this through a series of narrative and descriptive creative strategies. The findings presented in the article are aimed at demonstrating that the “revolutionary history” is not only an important topic in contemporary Chinese literature, but also serves as a way for writers to deal with “revolutionary history” changes alongside new developments in Chinese literature.