The city in modern Chinese literature & film
Subtitle: configurations of space, time, and gender
By: Yingjin Zhang.
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Stanford, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 390
Subjects: Chinese literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism.; Motion pictures -- China.; Cities and towns in literature.; Cities and towns in motion pictures.; Cities and towns -- China.
Description: This study explores the ways in which the city and urban life have been represented in modern Chinese literature and film. The author has three aims: to trace the literary and filmic configurations (i.e., symbolic constructions) of the city in modern China; to investigate the ways the city is placed in an ambivalent - if not negative - light in these configurations; and to work toward an understanding of how one can study the nature of the city/country problematic in modern Chinese literary history.

The book draws upon many literary and filmic texts that have been either previously ignored or deemed of no importance, and presents them in such a way that they - together with certain canonical works interpreted from new perspectives - point to an important structure of urban imagination in modern China.

Throughout, the author draws upon theoretical insights from a wide variety of disciplines - anthropology, history, psychology, sociology, as well as literature, film, and cultural studies - to illuminate particular issues.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [329]-358) and index.