Professor Denecke and Zhang Longxi (Hong Kong) launch a new book series on East Asian Comparative Literature and Culture with Qian Zhongshu’s essays
MLCL’s own Wiebke Denecke and Zhang Longxi’s, of the City University of Hong Kong just launched a new book series devoted to the comparative study of East Asian literatures and cultures with Brill publishers. With the increasing international importance of East Asia in economic, political, and cultural terms, more and more readers are interested in better understanding this part of the world which can boast long-standing histories and traditions as well as vibrating modern cultures. This book series publishes substantial comparative research on the literary and cultural traditions of premodern and modern East Asia and their relation to the world.
The series showcases original research on the methodology and practice of comparison in three main areas: intra-Asian comparisons of China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam; East-West comparisons that examine Western alongside East Asian traditions and explore their historical encounters and cultural interactions; and multi-polar studies that examine East Asian literatures and cultures in light of their relations with India, the Middle East, Africa, or Latin America. The series focuses on the core humanities such as literature, history, religion, philosophy and thought, art history, and archaeology, but also welcomes contributions adopting culturally-informed approaches in anthropology, political science, sociology, or linguistics.
Our inaugural volume features essays by Qian Zhongshu (1910-1998), China’s most eminent modern literary scholar and novelist. Rendered in elegant translation by Duncan M. Campbell, of the Australian National University, Patchwork: Seven Essays on Art and Literature, Qian Zhongshu, with his characteristic erudition and wit, addresses here aspects of the classical literary and artistic traditions of China and reveals striking connections between disparate literary, historical, and intellectual traditions, ancient and modern, Chinese and Western.
For more information on the book series and its forthcoming volumes see:
http://www.brill.com/products/series/east-asian-comparative-literature-and-culture