The Monster That Is Fiction: The Politics of “Storytelling” in Contemporary China

David Der-wei Wang

Veranstaltung des FF Nach dem Eurozentrismus und FF Dimensionen des Ästhetischen.
Gleichzeitig die Richard Wilhelm Lecture der Sinologie

Achtung! Raumabweichung: IG 1.314 (Eisenhower Raum)

This lecture invokes fiction as one of the most polemical ways to engage with Chinese
(post)modernity. It takes as its point of departure President Xi Jinping’s 2013 call to “tell the
good China story,” not only explicating the “fictional turn” of contemporary Chinese cultural
politics vis à vis the word, but also tracing its genealogy to early modern times. Inspired by
Hannah Arendt’s notion of “the fearful imagination,” the lecture tries to answer the question:
Why does fiction and storytelling matter in China and the rest of the world, not only through the
modern period but also in the contemporary era?

David Der-wei Wang is a literary historian, critic, and the Edward C. Henderson Professor of Chinese Literature at Harvard University.

Mittwoch, 08.05.2024

iCalendar

Termin exportieren