Mo Yan in Context: Nobel Laureate and Global Storyteller(Comparative Cultural Studies)

In 2012 the Swedish Academy announced that Mo Yan had received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work that “with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history, and the contemporary.” The announcement marked the first time a resident of mainland China had ever received the award. This is the first English-language study of the Chinese writer’s work and influence, featuring essays from scholars in a range of disciplines, from both China and the United States. Its introduction, twelve articles, and epilogue aim to deepen and widen critical discussions of both a specific literary author and the globalisation of Chinese literature more generally. The book takes the “root-seeking” movement with which Mo Yan’s works are associated as a metaphor for its organisational structure. The four articles of “Part I: Leaves” focus on Mo Yan’s works as world literature, exploring the long shadow his works have cast globally. Howard Goldblatt, Mo Yan’s English translator, explores the difficulties and rewards of interpreting his work, while subsequent articles cover issues such as censorship and the “performativity” associated with being a global author. “Part II: Trunk” explores the nativist core of Mo Yan’s works. Through careful comparative treatment of related historical events, the five articles in this section show how specific literary works intermingle with China’s national and international politics, its mid-twentieth-century visual culture, and its rich religious and literary conventions, including humor. The three articles in “Part III: Roots” delve into the theoretical and practical extensions of Mo Yan’s works, uncovering the vibrant critical and cultural systems that ground Eastern and Western literatures and cultures. Mo Yan in Context concludes with an epilogue by sociologist Fenggang Yang, offering a personal and globally aware reflection on the recognition Mo Yan’s works have received at this historical juncture.

About the Author :
Angelica Duran has been on the English and comparative literature faculties at Purdue University since earning her PhD from Stanford in English literature. She also has served as Purdue’s director of Religious Studies. Her many journal articles and scholarly chapters reflect the interdisciplinary nature of her research, ranging from Anglo-Hispanic Comparative Literature to Disability Studies, all anchored in Renaissance British literature. She is the editor of A Concise Companion to Milton (2007) and The King James Bible, Across Centuries, Across Borders (2015), and is the author of The Age of Milton and the Scientific Revolution (2007). Yuhan Huang is a doctoral candidate in comparative literature at Purdue University, with a focus on Comparative Studies of East and West and Film Studies. Her interests include documentary film and photography, word and image, and art history. She is a recipient of an Outstanding Thesis Award of Beijing Foreign Studies University and Purdue Lynn Fellowship.