Frontiers of Literary Studies in China
Special Issue (Fall or Winter 2015) – The Human in Postsocialism
Edited by Jennifer Dorothy Lee and Jun Xie
Call for Papers
China and ‘the human’ supply the twin thematics of global platforms ranging from international book fairs to the contemporary art market, from U.N. summits on human rights to the Nobel Peace Prize. Paradoxically, conceptions of humanism particular to the geopolitical context of present-day China receive more speculation in news media than sustained scholarly attention outside of it. Challenging China’s “farewell to the revolution,” this special issue of Frontiers of Literary Studies in China will interrogate the boundary dividing Marxism from humanism, socialism from postsocialism, Mao from post-Mao. By grounding an examination of China and ‘the human’ in the historical aftermath of the Chinese Revolution, we will undertake a concentrated exploration of the transformations and transmutations of subjectivity, thought, and aesthetic form driving the emergence of post-Mao cultural production in postsocialist China. Papers should address the prospects of the human (ren, renxing) for forging, building and/or reviving discourses of literary, poetic, and visual creation in the liminal years extending from the end of Maoism into the 1980s.
The aim of this special issue is multifold, and includes the consideration of configurations of the human within popular imagination and cultural experimentalism. Papers that engage in comparative theoretical examinations of humanism are equally welcome. How does the human linger on as a spectral presence or “shadow” within competing modes of representation after Mao? How do the critical and/or philosophical discussions of ren so characteristic of the years after Mao’s death remain crucial to understanding humanism in China today?
Potential topics related to this historical time period include:
- Revisiting the ‘scar’, ‘reflection’, ‘reform’, and/or ‘humanist’ literary genres.
- The concept of socialist alienation.
- The emergence of post-Mao cinematic discourse and representation.
- New forms of self-expression and exhibitionism in the visual arts.
- Critical discourse on socialism and/or democracy.
The submission deadline is April 1, 2015 (for a projected publication date of Fall or Winter 2015).
Please adhere to FLSC STYLE SHEET GUIDELINES. Send electronic submissions to both guest editors Jun Xie (jx268@nyu.edu) and Jennifer Dorothy Lee (jdlee02@wm.edu); as well as to FLSC managing editor Chun Zhang (zhangchun@hep.com.cn).