Ecocriticism and Chinese Literature

"Applying a theoretically informed approach involving the key terms of sentiment (qing) and situatedness (jing), this timely collection of essays expertly tackles the entanglements between human agency, transhuman affective intensities and nonhuman environmental forces in Chinese and Sinophone literary texts. Highlighting the precarity of all forms of life and matter vis-à-vis human superpredation, the volume opens up new horizons beyond the prevailing anthropocentric perception of the world. In this way, it promises to deepen our understanding of the continuities, hybridity, ruptures and new departures of Chinese landscape aesthetics. Moreover, it is a strong testimony to literature’s inexhaustible vitality - presently infusing academic research, cultural production, and discourses on climate change across the globe."

Prof. Dr. Andrea Riemenschnitter, Chair, Modern China, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Zurich

"From early modern poetry to contemporary science fiction, this remarkable volume presents a diverse group of cutting-edge scholars as they explore ideas about landscape, environment, and ecoliterature. A wonderful sourcebook for re-thinking the complex intersections between text and context, emotion and environment, qing and jing, in Sinophone literature."

Michael Berry, Director, UCLA Center for Chinese Studies, Professor of Contemporary Chinese Cultural Studies Asian Languages & Cultures/Film, Television and Digital Media UCLA, author of Jia Zhangke on Jia Zhangke.

"Ecocriticism and Chinese Literature: Imagined Landscapes and Real Lived Spaces, edited by Riccardo Moratto, Nicoletta Pesaro, and Di-kai Chao, centers around qing (情) and jing (境) in facilitating the dialogue between traditional poetics and contemporary ecocriticism. It is an insightful volume that opens new pathways for scholars who share the same research interests."

Chia-rong Wu, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global, Cultural and Language Studies at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.

Ecocriticism and Chinese Literature: Imagined Landscapes and Real Lived Spaces

Stefania Stafutti, Full Professor of Chinese Language and Literature, University of Torino, Italy

"This collection of essays responds to the most urgent issue of the current world, in which human activities are destroying natural environment – the space and fabric of life on which humans depend. Looking into this topic through modern literature from mainland China (but also Taiwan and Malaysia), it provides the reader with fascinating insights from an Asian perspective. Shared interest in ancient Chinese vision of man and nature, re-interpreted through post-modern anxiety about the environment, connects contemporary literature with domestic tradition and offers an innovative view on Chinese tradition as re-inventing itself in response to new challenges. The idea to bring together two cutting-edge genres in Sinophone literature – poetry and science-fiction – is brilliant and provoking, and it encourages new ways of thinking about modern Chinese literature."

Prof. Olga Lomová, Charles University - Univerzita Karlova