A Companion to World Literature

A Companion to World Literature

Role

Editor: Ken Seigneurie

Contributing author: Jiwei Xiao

Document Type

Book Contribution

Description/Summary

Jiwei Xiao is a contributing author, "To the Frontier of the Mind: Shen Congwen and World Literature," Volume 5a, Chapter 29.

A Companion to World Literature is a far-reaching and sustained study of key authors, texts, and topics from around the world and throughout history. Six comprehensive volumes present essays from over 300 prominent international scholars focusing on many aspects of this vast and burgeoning field of literature, from its ancient origins to the most modern narratives.

Almost by definition, the texts of world literature are unfamiliar; they stretch our hermeneutic circles, thrust us before unfamiliar genres, modes, forms, and themes. They require a greater degree of attention and focus, and in turn engage our imagination in new ways. This Companion explores texts within their particular cultural context, as well as their ability to speak to readers in other contexts, demonstrating the ways in which world literature can challenge parochial world views by identifying cultural commonalities.

Each unique volume includes introductory chapters on a variety of theoretical viewpoints that inform the field, followed by essays considering the ways in which authors and their books contribute to and engage with the many visions and variations of world literature as a genre.

  • Explores how texts, tropes, narratives, and genres reflect nations, languages, cultures, and periods
  • Links world literary theory and texts in a clear, synoptic style
  • Identifies how individual texts are influenced and affected by issues such as intertextuality, translation, and sociohistorical conditions
  • Presents a variety of methodologies to demonstrate how modern scholars approach the study of world literature

A significant addition to the field, A Companion to World Literature provides advanced students, teachers, and researchers with cutting-edge scholarship in world literature and literary theory.

ISBN

9781118993187

Publication Date

2-2022

Publication Information

Xiao, J. (2020). To the Frontier of the Mind: Shen Congwen and World Literature. In A Companion to World Literature, K. Seigneurie (Ed.). doi:10.1002/9781118635193.ctwl0249

Comments

Copyright 2020 Wiley-Blackwell

A Companion to World Literature

Share

COinS