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The Literature of Leisure and Chinese Modernity
The Chinese essay is arguably China’s most distinctive contribution to modern world literature, and the period of its greatest influence and popularity―the mid-1930s―is the central concern of this book. What Charles Laughlin terms "the literature of leisure" is a modern literary response to the cultural past that manifests itself most conspicuously in the form of short, informal essay writing (xiaopin wen) . Laughlin examines the essay both as a widely practiced and influential genre of literary expression and as an important counter-discourse to the revolutionary tradition of New Literature (especially realistic fiction), often viewed as the dominant mode of literature at the time.
After articulating the relationship between the premodern traditions of leisure literature and the modern essay, Laughlin treats the various essay styles representing different groups of writers. Each is characterized according to a single defining "wandering" in the case of the Yu si (Threads of Conversation) group surrounding Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren; "learning" with the White Horse Lake group of Zhejiang schoolteachers like Feng Zikai and Xia Mianzun; "enjoying" in the case of Lin Yutang’s Analects group; "dreaming" with the Beijing school. The concluding chapter outlines the impact of leisure literature on Chinese culture up to the present day.
The Literature of Leisure and Chinese Modernity dramatizes the vast importance and unique nature of creative nonfiction prose writing in modern China. It will be eagerly read by those with an interest in twentieth-century Chinese literature, modern China, and East Asian or world literatures.
After articulating the relationship between the premodern traditions of leisure literature and the modern essay, Laughlin treats the various essay styles representing different groups of writers. Each is characterized according to a single defining "wandering" in the case of the Yu si (Threads of Conversation) group surrounding Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren; "learning" with the White Horse Lake group of Zhejiang schoolteachers like Feng Zikai and Xia Mianzun; "enjoying" in the case of Lin Yutang’s Analects group; "dreaming" with the Beijing school. The concluding chapter outlines the impact of leisure literature on Chinese culture up to the present day.
The Literature of Leisure and Chinese Modernity dramatizes the vast importance and unique nature of creative nonfiction prose writing in modern China. It will be eagerly read by those with an interest in twentieth-century Chinese literature, modern China, and East Asian or world literatures.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2008
9 people want to read
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September 16, 2021
The following is a shortened, truncated version of my review here:
Sabina Knight, Review of *The Literature of Leisure and Chinese Modernity*, by Charles Laughlin
(U of Hawai‘i Press, 2008). *Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies*, vol. 70, no. 1, pp. 225-31. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/377607
"Although most major modern Chinese authors wrote essays, and essays have played a central role in cultural debates and the development of modern written Chinese, scholarship on the genre has been decidedly limited. Moreover, the sheer volume, complex historical contexts, and distinctive sensibilities pose formidable obstacles to analyzing this corpus. Charles Laughlin's rich cultural history, which focuses on informal essays from 1922 to the outbreak of war in 1937, makes a major contribution toward . . . organizing the study of this enormous corpus.
"Laughlin frames his discussion in terms of these essays' continuation of the rich legacy from premodern and early modern times of a "literature of leisure" (閑情文學). He applies this broad label to works that, departing from Confucian concerns with public duty and moral cultivation, present alternative values based more on the appreciation of nature, beauty, and feeling (情). This tradition includes Zhuangzi's playful parables, . . . personal correspondence, autobiographies, travelogues, and literati novels . . .
"In presenting leisure literature's legacy, Laughlin correctly accentuates the importance of the late Ming period. As economic development engendered unprecedented growth in leisure pursuits, and as a large number of literati became estranged from the official sphere during the Ming-Qing transition, writers began crafting the literature of leisure more self-consciously. To put it another way, what had been an incidental literature of leisure became an explicit literature for leisure. . . .
"In the face of pressure to create realist narratives in the service of Western-style modernization, social reform, and revolution, many politically minded writers viewed essays in this leisure tradition as traditionalist or even reactionary. Yet Laughlin's central thesis is that Republican-era writers turned to the late imperial tradition of essay writing as "a compellingly 'Chinese' (or at least non-Western) way of being modern" (p. 17). Whereas politically engaged literature promoted progress and revolution, informal essay writing focused on domestic environments and "the art of living". . .
"Although Laughlin underscores the implicit critique in these works of the dominant May Fourth vision of modernity, he rejects the dichotomy between leisure literature and revolutionary literature as overly rigid. For him, these sensibilities express interdependent impulses, which are connected by leisure literature's "moral commitment to principles" . . .
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If you do not have access to the review through your library, I can email you a PDF under fair use. (My work email address is available on my web page at Smith.edu .)
Sabina Knight, Review of *The Literature of Leisure and Chinese Modernity*, by Charles Laughlin
(U of Hawai‘i Press, 2008). *Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies*, vol. 70, no. 1, pp. 225-31. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/377607
"Although most major modern Chinese authors wrote essays, and essays have played a central role in cultural debates and the development of modern written Chinese, scholarship on the genre has been decidedly limited. Moreover, the sheer volume, complex historical contexts, and distinctive sensibilities pose formidable obstacles to analyzing this corpus. Charles Laughlin's rich cultural history, which focuses on informal essays from 1922 to the outbreak of war in 1937, makes a major contribution toward . . . organizing the study of this enormous corpus.
"Laughlin frames his discussion in terms of these essays' continuation of the rich legacy from premodern and early modern times of a "literature of leisure" (閑情文學). He applies this broad label to works that, departing from Confucian concerns with public duty and moral cultivation, present alternative values based more on the appreciation of nature, beauty, and feeling (情). This tradition includes Zhuangzi's playful parables, . . . personal correspondence, autobiographies, travelogues, and literati novels . . .
"In presenting leisure literature's legacy, Laughlin correctly accentuates the importance of the late Ming period. As economic development engendered unprecedented growth in leisure pursuits, and as a large number of literati became estranged from the official sphere during the Ming-Qing transition, writers began crafting the literature of leisure more self-consciously. To put it another way, what had been an incidental literature of leisure became an explicit literature for leisure. . . .
"In the face of pressure to create realist narratives in the service of Western-style modernization, social reform, and revolution, many politically minded writers viewed essays in this leisure tradition as traditionalist or even reactionary. Yet Laughlin's central thesis is that Republican-era writers turned to the late imperial tradition of essay writing as "a compellingly 'Chinese' (or at least non-Western) way of being modern" (p. 17). Whereas politically engaged literature promoted progress and revolution, informal essay writing focused on domestic environments and "the art of living". . .
"Although Laughlin underscores the implicit critique in these works of the dominant May Fourth vision of modernity, he rejects the dichotomy between leisure literature and revolutionary literature as overly rigid. For him, these sensibilities express interdependent impulses, which are connected by leisure literature's "moral commitment to principles" . . .
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If you do not have access to the review through your library, I can email you a PDF under fair use. (My work email address is available on my web page at Smith.edu .)
Displaying 1 of 1 review