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The Uses of Literature – Life in the Socialist Chinese Literary System
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The Uses of Literature – Life in the Socialist Chinese Literary System Paperback - 2000

by Perry Link

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Description

Princeton Univ Pr, 2000. Paperback. New. 386 pages. 9.25x6.25x1.00 inches.
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Details

  • Title The Uses of Literature – Life in the Socialist Chinese Literary System
  • Author Perry Link
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition 1st Paperback
  • Condition New
  • Pages 386
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Princeton Univ Pr, Princeton:
  • Date 2000
  • Features Bibliography, Glossary
  • Bookseller's Inventory # x-0691001987
  • ISBN 9780691001982 / 0691001987
  • Weight 1.21 lbs (0.55 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.21 x 6.14 x 1.03 in (23.39 x 15.60 x 2.62 cm)
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: Asian - General
    • Cultural Region: Asian - Chinese
    • Cultural Region: East Asian
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 99041856
  • Dewey Decimal Code 895.109

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First line

FOR UNDERSTANDABLE historical reasons, China has never easily viewed itself as one nation among others.

From the rear cover

Why have people in socialist China read and written literary works? Earlier studies in Western Sinology have approached Chinese texts from the socialist era as portraits of society, as keys to the tug-of-war of dissent, or, more recently, as pursuit of "pure art". The Uses of Literature looks broadly and empirically at these and many other "uses" of literature from the points of view of authors, editors, political authorities, and several kinds of readers. Perry Link, author of Evening Chats in Beijing, considers texts ranging from elite "misty" poetry to underground hand-copied volumes (shouchauben) and shows in concrete detail how people who were involved with literature sought to teach, learn, enjoy, explore, debate, lead, control, and resist.

Using the late 1970s and early 1980s as an entree to the workings of China's "socialist literary system", the author shows how that system held sway from 1950 until around 1990, when an encroaching market economy gradually but fundamentally changed it. In addition to providing a definitive overview of how the socialist Chinese literary system worked, Link offers comparisons to the similar system in the Soviet Union. In the final chapter, the book seeks to explain how the word "good" was used and understood when applied to literary works in such systems.

Combining aspects of cultural and literary studies, The Uses of Literature will reward anyone interested in the literature of modern China or how creativity is affected by a "socialist literary system".

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Citations

  • Choice, 09/01/2000, Page 123

About the author

Perry Link is Professor of East Asian Studies at Princeton University, where he teaches modern Chinese language, literature, and cultural history. His books include Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies and Evening Chats in Beijing.