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Publication of Prose libre: the modern essay in China
16 May 2023
Heir to a long literary tradition, free prose, or sanwen, has become one of the four major genres of Chinese literature in modern times, alongside poetry, the novel and drama. Practiced from time immemorial by a multitude of writers, it constitutes a vast and highly complex field, and remains a genre little translated or studied abroad. This book is intended as an introduction to some of the issues surrounding modern sanwen.
Contenu central
Through a series of case studies stretching, chronologically, from Lu Xun to Yan Lianke and Mu Xin, via Deng Tuo, Ba Jin or Wang Xiaobo, it deals with different types of literary prose and addresses various theoretical issues: termino-logical and definitional difficulties, the effects produced by the text according to its mode of publication, the role of the essay as a political weapon and as testimony, the boundary between fictional and non-fictional literature.