EACS-2016. Book of Abstracts

Modern Literature 21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies 54 1. Appeal to universal values and mythological prototypes: sacred tree ruomu; gold raven jinwu (sun); plumed serpent yushe and others. Perhaps, thanking to yushe reminding to European readers the Ancient Greek myth about Prometheus, or the Mexican myth about Quetzalcoatl or D. H. Lawrence’s “The Plumed Serpent”, works of Xu Xiaobin were accepted abroad with interest. 2. Effective form of writing when events of today are built into a mythological context. Fancifulness of the form is combined with clarity and even “childishness” of her language. 3. Intertextuality and innermost internal dialogue with other writers and other cultures. The LatinAmeri- can magic realists made impact on Xu Xiaobin’s writings. 4. Aspiration to change, not to mark time, to be new and unexpected. Xu Xiaobin adheres to two main principles: not to copy others and not to copy herself. 5. Wide range of creative searches which leaves far beyond fiction. Alchemy, heraldry, magic, Yi Jing, tarot cards and many other things represent sources of her inspiration. 6. Visualization of images and all complex of artistic tools. Most evidently, it is shown in illustrations by Xu Xiaobin to her own books. Contemporary fractal fine arts inspire the process of text writing. 7. Aspiration to syncretism of literary writings. Images created by Xu Xiaobin, uniting earthy/human and heavenly/divine, “give birth from two to one” (reversed formula from Dao De Jing). The writer emphasizes that the world, dual by its nature, gives birth to other things and worlds, but keeps ability to come back to initial contours of its form. Klöter Henning (Humboldt University of Berlin) Language Lost? A Linguistic Critique of Sinophone Literature Key words: Sinophone, Ng Kim Chew, language of literature, linguistic expressivity In the past decade, the term “Sinophone” (huayu yuxi) has been increasingly used in literary and cultural studies to distinguish Chinese/Sinitic language(s) from the ambiguous label “Chinese”. Whereas “Chinese literature” implies both literature written in the Chinese language and literature from China, “Sinophone literature” in most cases refers to literature written in a Sinitic language from any place outside mainland China. Despite the broad spatial reach of the term, Sinophone literature has mostly been applied to literature from places whose cultural and linguistic ties with China are obvious and at the same time controversial, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. One recurrent topic in debates on Sinophone literature is the use of language for literary composi- tion. Authors and critics, for example Ng Kim Chew, have criticized the dominance of Mandarin as a symbol of northern Chinese cultural and linguistic dominance. As a consequence, so the argument goes, Sinophone literature from the aforementioned places lacks expressivity with regard to the linguistic diversity associated with them. From these issues it is evident that the dimensions of Sinophone literature go beyond literature and touch upon various linguistic questions. Until now, however, linguistic terms and concepts have not been applied systematically to Sinophone literature. It is the purpose of this talk to address this lack by discussing the following interrelated questions: To what express can southern Sinitic languages be expressed in writing? Vice versa, is modern written Sinitic by definition northern Sinitic? Does the alleged lack of linguistic expressivity correlate with prevailing language attitudes in the respective language communities? Korobova Anastasia (IFES RAS) “Marketplace Fiction”: Localization in Vernacular Literature Key words: Contemporary Chinese literature, “Marketplace Fiction”, Feng Jicai, Oral Narrative, Localization The current paper deals with the most famous writers of “marketplace fiction” 市井小说 , a school of literature emerged in 1980-s along with a “fever” for traditional culture in China: Deng Youmei, Feng Jicai and Lu Wenfu. Some of their works talk about late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China,