Description
Over the past twenty years, Chinese novelist Yan Lianke has emerged as one of the most important writers in the world. In Discovering Fiction, Yan offers insights into his views on literature and realism, the major works that inspired him, and his theories of writing. He juxtaposes discussions of the high realism of Leo Tolstoy and Lu Xun against Franz Kafka's modernism and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's magical realism, charting the relationship between causality, truth, and modes of realism. He also discusses his approach to realism, which he terms "mythorealism"-a way of capturing the world's underlying truth by relying on the allegories, myths, legends, and dreamscapes that emerge from daily life. Revealing and instructive, Discovering Fiction gives readers an unprecedented look into the mind and art of a literary giant.
About the Author
Yan Lianke is the author of Hard Like Water, The Day the Sun Died, The Explosion Chronicles, The Four Books, and many other novels and story collections. Winner of the Franz Kafka Prize and a two-time finalist for the Man Booker International Prize, Yan teaches at Renmin University in Beijing and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Carlos Rojas is Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University. He has translated several of Yan's novels, including Hard Like Water, The Day the Sun Died, and The Explosion Chronicles.
Reviews
"Yan's commentaries on the realist canon emerging over the last several hundred years are consistently insightful and often strikingly illuminating, as in his assessments of how the strongest writers, from Defoe to Turgenev and beyond, have continually shifted readers' understanding of what counts as reality. . . . A sometimes dense but always discerning consideration of how truth emerges across an impressive array of global literature." * Kirkus Reviews *
"A thought-provoking look at the state of literature, and how it came to pass." * Publishers Weekly *
Book Information
ISBN 9781478018308
Author Lianke Yan
Format Paperback
Page Count 160
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 249g
About the Author
Yan Lianke is the author of Hard Like Water, The Day the Sun Died, The Explosion Chronicles, The Four Books, and many other novels and story collections. Winner of the Franz Kafka Prize and a two-time finalist for the Man Booker International Prize, Yan teaches at Renmin University in Beijing and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Carlos Rojas is Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University. He has translated several of Yan's novels, including Hard Like Water, The Day the Sun Died, and The Explosion Chronicles.
Reviews
"Yan's commentaries on the realist canon emerging over the last several hundred years are consistently insightful and often strikingly illuminating, as in his assessments of how the strongest writers, from Defoe to Turgenev and beyond, have continually shifted readers' understanding of what counts as reality. . . . A sometimes dense but always discerning consideration of how truth emerges across an impressive array of global literature." * Kirkus Reviews *
"A thought-provoking look at the state of literature, and how it came to pass." * Publishers Weekly *
Book Information
ISBN 9781478018308
Author Lianke Yan
Format Paperback
Page Count 160
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 249g
