Book discussion: Sound and Script in Chinese Diaspora

Stanford University presents a discussion on the notion of "literary governance," drawing our attention to, among other things, the underlying and irreducible materiality of language and its new expanding role in global language wars and cultural dominance.

Jing Tsu
Professor of Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Yale University

Lauren Eidal
Ph.D. student, Comparative Literature, Stanford University

Gabriel Rodriguez
Ph.D. Student, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Stanford University

DISCUSSANTS:

Lauren Eidal (PhD student, Comparative Literature), Gabriel Rodriguez (PhD Student, EALC)

RSVP required by February 13, 2012 to czhou001@stanford.edu  (Dinner will be served)
Open to the public.

Sound and Script in Chinese Diaspora poses a foundational question about mother tongues, linguistic nativity, and national languages in humanistic approaches to literature. Taking the Sinophone world as its main theoretical motivation and historical horizon, the book analyzes geographically disparate literary phenomena in different Chinese-language and related bilingual contexts.  It brings a number of historically neglected institutional, intellectual, technological, and conceptual innovations concerning standard languages and dialects to bear on a possible global context for the future of modern Chinese literary studies. As a way of helping us understand the changing face of literary studies at large, this study advances the notion of "literary governance," drawing our attention to, among other things, the underlying and irreducible materiality of language and its new expanding role in global language wars and cultural dominance.