On Qing (情) and Jing (境) in Chinese Literature: A Discourse on Ecocriticism
Date: September, 2020
We are seeking contributions to an edited volume focusing on the concepts of qing (情) and jing (境) throughout Chinese literature, with a special emphasis on modern and contemporary Chinese literature, by examining the environmental and ecological dimensions of such notions. This volume sets out to explore the concepts of qing (情) and jing (境) in Chinese literature from an ecocritical perspective.
In The Ecocriticism Reader, Cheryll Glotfelty defines Ecocriticism as “the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment,” whereas Lawrence Buell defines ecocriticism as a “study of the relationship between literature and the environment conducted in a spirit of commitment to environmentalist praxis.”
The two concepts of qing and jing may be analyzed on different temporal and semantic coordinates. First, as duly pointed out by Cai and Wu (2019), qing 情 has been identified at the core of Chinese thinking about literature, such that “lyrical tradition” becomes an encompassing concept for many to distinguish Chinese literary tradition from its Western counterpart. The concepts of qing and jing may indeed be analyzed as two separate semantic identities or as part of a whole semantic unit: qingjing literature (情境文学, situated literature). Moreover, the two concepts may be analyzed in a diachronic perspective, by providing a reinterpretation of classical Chinese literary concepts, namely qing and jing, through a contemporary and ecocritic lens; they may also be analyzed in a synchronic perspective by focusing on modern and contemporary Chinese literature, in particular nature writing, ecofiction, and environmental literature.
Over the last decade, numerous scholars have focused their research on nature writing in China, and have attempted to extend ecocritical paradigms to fiction, poetry, drama, essays, and notes. As emphasized by Yang (2013), Chinese modern and contemporary environmental writing offers a unique aesthetic perspective toward the natural world. Such a perspective is mainly ecological and allows human subjects to take a benign and nonutilitarian attitude toward nature.
An important aspect of environmental literature studies is the place that humanity occupies. Human beings should not rule alone as the center of the world nowadays, as Michel Foucault emphasized when he spoke about anthropocentrism. Indeed, Chinese literary ecology seems to be based on an ecological-systemic holism from which all human behaviors should be closely examined. Studying contemporary Chinese literature should thus transcend the scope of dominant anthropocentrism (Yang 2013).
We believe that an international, dynamic, and interdisciplinary exploration of matters related to ecocriticism, literary ecology, and environmental literary studies will provide valuable insights for anyone who wishes to have a better understanding of the relationship between humanity and nature, as well as our role and position within the natural realm. For this purpose, we especially welcome contributions, based on different research methodologies (qualitative, quantitative, corpus-based, case studies, etc.), including, but not limited to:
- Anthropocentrism
- Children’s environmental literature
- Climate change
- Climate literature
- Cultural ecology
- Ecological values
- Ecopedagogy
- Ecopoetics
- Ecosystems and imaginative texts
- Environmental literary criticism
- Human ecology
- Human perception of wilderness
- Literary ecology
- Nature writing
- Pastoralism
- Regionalism
- Relationship between literature and the physical environment
- Nativist literature
- Imagined landscapes and real lived spaces
Once we have a set of confirmed authors, we will make a formal proposal to our publisher. For more information regarding our publisher please contact the editorial team. Please submit your proposals, including a 300-word abstract, to the following address: qingandjing2021@gmail.com.
You will receive notifications of acceptance of abstracts on or before January 15, 2021. If your proposal is accepted, you will be requested to submit a complete essay (approximately 8,000-10,000 words) by the end of June 2021. All manuscripts will be subject to a blind peer-review process before they are accepted for publication. More details on the paper submission process will be provided once your proposal has been accepted. For any further inquiries, please contact the editorial team at qingandjing2021@gmail.com.
Key deadlines are as follows:
- Abstract submission: January 10, 2021
- Initial confirmation with a title/abstract: January 15, 2021
- Expected first draft paper due to the editors: June 30, 2021 (approximately 8000-10,000 )
- Expected publication date: Autumn 2021
Submission language: English, Chinese (if accepted, we will take care of translating the essay into English)
We look forward to your participation in this project.
Kind regards,
Riccardo Moratto (GDUFS)
Nicoletta Pesaro (Ca’ Foscari University)
Dikai Chao (NTHU)
References
Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World. New York: Pantheon, 1996.
Alex, Rayson K., S. Susan Deborah & Sachindev P.S. Culture and Media: Ecocritical Explorations. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014.
Armbruster K., Kathleen R. Wallace (eds), Beyond Nature Writing. Expanding the Boundaries of Ecocriticism. Charlottesville and London: The University Press of Virginia, 2001.
Barry, Peter. “Ecocriticism”. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. 3rd ed. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2009.
Buell, Lawrence.The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Cai, Zong-qi, Wu Shengqing. Introduction: Emotion, Patterning, and Visuality in Chinese Literary Thought and Beyond. Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture (2019) 6 (1): 1–14.
Coupe, Laurence, ed. The Green Studies Reader: From Romanticism to Ecocriticism. London: Routledge, 2000.
Forns-Broggi, Roberto. “La aventura perdida del ecopoema” in Fórnix 5/6 (2007): 376–394. (in Spanish)
Frederick, Suresh. Contemporary Contemplations on Ecoliterature. New Delhi:Authorpress, 2012.
Garrard, Greg, Ecocriticism. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Garrard, Greg (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Ecocriticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Glotfelty, Cheryll and Harold Fromm (Eds). The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Athens and London: University of Georgia, 1996.
Johns-Putra, Adeline, Literature and Climate, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Kroeber, Karl. Ecological Literary Criticism: Romantic Imagining and the Biology of Mind. New York: Columbia UP, 1994.
McKusick, James C. Green Writing: Romanticism and Ecology. New York: St. Martin’s, 2000.
Meeker, Joseph W. “The Comedy of Survival: Studies in Literary Ecology.” New York: Scribner’s, 1972.
Moore, Bryan L. Ecology and Literature: Ecocentric Personification from Antiquity to the Twenty-first Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
Morton, Timothy. The Ecological Thought. Cambridge, MAL Harvard University Press, 2012.
Nichols, Ashton. “Beyond Romantic Ecocriticism: Toward Urbanatural Roosting.” New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Paperback, 2012.
Nicolson, Marjorie Hope. Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite. Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press, 1959.
Phillips, Dana. The Truth of Ecology: Nature, Culture, and Literature in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Yang J. (2013) Environmental Dimensions in Contemporary Chinese Literature and Criticism. In: Estok S.C., Kim WC. (eds) East Asian Ecocriticisms. Literatures, Cultures, and the Environment. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137345363_11
Zapf, Hubert. “Literary Ecology and the Ethics of Texts.” New Literary History 39.4 (2008): 847–868.
征稿启事
【中国文学的「情」与「境」：关于生态批评主义的论述】
本次征稿主题为中国(华文)文学的「情」与「境」，特别聚焦于现当代中国文学中关于环境与生态面向的概念，从「生态批评」(ecocriticism)视角探讨中国文学之情境关系。就生态批评视角而言，Cheryll Glotfelty在《生态批评读本》（The Ecocriticism Reader）一书中，将生态批评主义定义为「关于文学与物理环境之关系的研究」，而Lawrence Buell也将此概念定义为 「以致力于环境主义实践的精神而进行的文学与环境之间关系的研究」。
「情」与「境」这两个概念，可以在不同的时间和语义坐标上进行分析。首先，正如Cai和Wu(2019)适时指出的，「情」已经被确定为中国文学思维的核心，以至于 「抒情传统」成为许多论者区分中国与西方之文学传统的一个包罗万象的概念；「情境文学」中的「情」与「境」确实可以被分析为两个独立的语义身份，或者是一个整体语义单位的一部分。我们可以从历时性角度进行分析这两个概念，透过当代和生态批评的视角，对中国古典文学中的「情」与「境」进行重新阐释；我们也可以从共时性角度，关注现代和当代文学，特别是自然写作、生态小说和环境文学。
近十年来，众多学者将研究重点放在中国的自然写作上，试图将生态批评范式延伸到小说、诗歌、戏剧、散文、笔记等领域。正如Yang（2013）所强调的，中国现当代环境写作提供了一种对自然界的独特审美视角。这种视角主要是生态的，让人类主体对自然采取一种良性的、非功利的态度。环境文学研究的一个重要方面是人类所占据的位置为何，正如福柯(Michel Foucault)在谈到人类中心主义时所强调的那样，人类不应该独自统治现在的世界中心。事实上，中国文学生态学似乎是建立在一种生态-系统整体主义的基础上，人类的一切行为都应该从这种整体主义中得到密切的考察。因此，研究中国当代文学应该超越主流的人类中心主义的范围（Yang 2013）。
我们相信，若能对生态批评、文学生态学和环境文学研究相关问题，进行国际性、动态性和跨学科的探索，有助于深化人类与自然关系之研究，理解人类在自然领域中的作用和地位。为此，我们特别欢迎不同研究方法（定性、定量、基于语料库、案例研究等）的贡献。征稿议题包括但不限于：
- 人类中心主义
- 儿童环境文学
- 气候变迁
- 气候文学
- 文化生态学
- 生态价值
- 生态教育学
- 生态诗学
- 生态系统和想象文本
- 环境文学批评
- 人类生态学
- 人类对荒野的认识
- 文学生态学
- 自然写作
- 田园主意
- 区域主义
- 文学与物理环境的关系
- 乡土文学
- 想象的风景与居住的空间
请将阁下的摘要（300字左右）寄至以下编辑部信箱：qingandjing2021@gmail.com。
来稿经审核通过后，将编入专书篇目，同时我们将向合作出版商提出出版计划。有关我们出版商的更多信息，请联系编辑部。
一旦接获阁下来稿摘要，我们将在2021年1月15日或之前回复摘要接受的通知。如果阁下的摘要被接受，请于2021年6月底前提交全文（约8000-10000字），以双向匿名审查制度审稿。一旦全文审核通过，我们将提供更多关于论文投稿流程的细节。如有其他疑问，亦请联系编辑部：qingandjing2021@gmail.com
主要截止日期如下:
- 摘要提交：2021年1月10日
- 初步确认：2021年1月15日
- 论文初稿交予编辑： 2021年6月30日（约8000-10000字）
- 预计出版日期：2021年秋
投稿语言为英文、中文（如被录用，我们将负责将论文翻译成英文）。
我们期待您参与这一项目。
Riccardo Moratto 莫冉（韦佳德）(GDUFS)
Nicoletta Pesaro 裴妮柯(Ca’Foscari University)
Dikai Chao 赵帝凯(NTHU)