SOAS China Institute Monday Forums
Forums are free and open to the public, no booking required. Please note that admission is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Monday 26 February 2018, 5pm-6.30pm
Reading as creative and social practice: Popular entertainment literature during the Cultural Revolution
Speaker: Dr Lena Henningsen (Freiburg University)
Room G3, Main college building, SOAS, University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H OXG
Abstract
Most literary histories of Twentieth Century China describe the output of the Cultural Revolution (CR) in a few sentences or paragraphs. Legal and officially endorsed literary texts of the decade seem flat, dull and boring to today’s readers. The CR thus appears as a period of literary shortage that would be ended with post-CR literature: misty poetry, scar literature, root seeking literature. However, a much more complicated picture of literary diversity arises once we look at actual literary practices: Chinese readers at the time were craving for things to read and went to great lengths to obtain reading materials. They would steal books from libraries; they read literary texts from earlier epochs that were now forbidden; they would illegally read and often copy material designated for internal circulation; they would write, read, copy and circulate entertainment literature by hand.
In this talk, Dr Henningsen will discuss this latter type of hand-written (shouchaoben) popular entertainment fiction from the perspective of reading practices.
Biography
Lena Henningsen is Junior Professor for Chinese Studies at Freiburg University. Her research interests focus on 20th and 21st century popular literature and culture. She has authored a book on the 2000s Chinese bestseller market (Copyright Matters: Imitation, Creativity and Authenticity in Contemporary Chinese Literature, 2010) and currently works on reading culture and practices during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. As part of this research, she is writing a monograph on illegal handwritten entertainment fiction from the 1970s.
Further details:
https://www.soas.ac.uk/china-institute/events/seminars/26feb2018-reading-as-creative-and-social-practice-popular-entertainment-literature-during-the-cultur.html
UCU Strike 2018
Please be aware there will be strike action taking place at SOAS on this day, as part of a national dispute about pensions where changes are proposed to the Universities Superannuation Scheme to tackle pension deficits. Changes relate to future pension contributions and entitlements. Access to all SOAS buildings will continue during strike days. Pickets should be peaceful and not prevent visitors from entering SOAS buildings.
Forthcoming forums:
08 March 2018
New Sources on Late Imperial Religion: Revelation, Morality and Salvation
Prof. Vincent Goossaert (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes)
12 March 2018
"China Watching" during the GPCR
John Gittings (SOAS, University of London)
30 April 2018
Socialist Feeling
Prof. Stephanie Hemelryk Donald (University of Lincoln & UNSW)
SCI Monday Forums: https://www.soas.ac.uk/china-institute/events/seminars/
Kind regards,
Li-Sa Whittington
Executive Officer, SOAS China Institute
SOAS, University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4823 Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: www.soas.ac.uk/china-institute/
Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday and Thursday (0930-1600)
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