Abstract

This is the third of four public Humanitas events in Chinese Studies by renowned scholar of Chinese Literature David Der-wei Wang.

David Der-wei Wang (Edward Henderson Professor in Chinese Literature at Harvard University, Director of CCK Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinological Studies, and Academician, Academia Senica) will give a series of three public lectures on The Chinesesness of Chinese Literature and participate in a concluding symposium on Wednesday 21 May 2014.

Sinophone Studies—the study of Sinitic-language cultures born of postcolonial and postsocialist influences—has represented a forceful intervention with Chinese Studies since the turn of the millennium. This talk seeks to examine the recent developments of Sinphone Studies and reflect on their theoretical premises and geopolitical implications.

The talk is divided into three parts. The first part takes issue with the definition of “Sinophone” as a homogeneous discourse and highlights the potential of heteroglossia in any Sinophone articulation. The second part proposes “post-loyalism” as a dialogical critique of the extant paradigm which is rooted primarily in post-colonialism and a renewed Cold-War spatial imaginary. The third part introduces the poetics of “disposition,” as inspired by the traditional Chinese poetics of shi, and suggests that beyond the geopolitics of “root,” scholars should look into the momentum arising from the aesthetic and humanistic engagement with Sinophone Studies.

For further information, see http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/25338