Questions of style : : literary societies and literary journals in modern China, 1911-1937 / / by Michel Hockx.

• Superior document: China studies, v. 2
• VerfasserIn: Hockx, Michel,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill,, 2003.
• Year of Publication: 2003
• Language: English
• Series: China Studies 2.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (340 pages) :; illustrations.

Dealing with the central issue of style in literature, this groundbreaking study is a must for sinologists, but also for all students of comparative literature. Michel Hockx takes as a point of departure the observation that most writers of the Republican period adhered to a distinctly traditional practice of gathering in literary societies, while at the same time displaying a marked preference for publishing their works through the modern medium of the literary journal. The first part of the book analyses different types of societies and their journals. The case studies in part two convey the wider impact of literary collectives and journal publications on literary practice. Convincingly breaking with the 'May Fourth' paradigm, the author proposes a radically new way of understanding the relationship between New Literature and other styles of modern Chinese writing.

Table of Contents

Introduction -- Creation by (Dis)Association : Literary Societies Entering the Modern Age -- The Societal and the Textual : New Literature Groups of the 1920s and 1930s and Their Journals -- The Collective Author and the Horizontal Reader : Aesthetic Dimensions of Literary Journals -- Styles in Conflict: Liu Bannong and the Forms of New Poetry -- Personality in Style : Abusive Criticism and Zeng Jinke -- The Power of Writing: Censorship and the Establishment of Literary Value -- Conclusion -- Appendix A: Members of The Literary Association -- Appendix B: Statistics on Literary Societies, Journals and Books.