EBOOK Chinese Literature:A Very Short Introduction

Perhaps nowhere else has literature been as conscious a collective endeavor as in        China, and China's survival over three thousand years may owe more to its literary        traditions than to its political history. This Very Short Introduction tells the        story of Chinese literature from antiquity to the present, focusing on the key role        literary culture played in supporting social and political concerns. Embracing        traditional Chinese understandings of literature as encompassing history and        philosophy as well as poetry and poetics, storytelling, drama, and the novel, Sabina        Knight discusses the philosophical foundations of literary culture as well as        literature's power to address historical trauma and cultivate moral and sensual        passions. From ancient historical records through the modernization and        globalization of Chinese literature, Knight draws on lively examples to underscore        the close relationship between ethics and aesthetics, as well as the diversity of        Chinese thought. Knight also illuminates the role of elite patronage; the ways        literature has served the interests of specific groups; and questions of        canonization, language, nationalism, and cross-cultural understanding. The book        includes Chinese characters for names, titles, and key terms.