1st Edition
Chinese Thought in a Multi-cultural World Cross-Cultural Communication, Comparative Literature and Beyond
Reflecting on the “clash of civilizations” as its point of departure, this book is based on a series of sixteen of the author’s interconnected, thematically focused lectures and calls for new perspectives to resist imperialistic homogeneity.
Situated within a neo-humanist context, the book applies interactive cognition from an Asian perspective within which China can be perceived as an essential “other,” making it highly relevant in the quest for global solutions to the many grave issues facing humankind today. The author critiques American, European, and Chinese points of view, highlighting the significance of difference and the necessity of dialogue, before, ultimately, rethinking the nature of world literature and putting forward interactive cognition as a means of “reconciliation” between cultures. Chinese culture, as a frame of reference endowed with traditions of “harmony without homogeneity”, may help to alleviate global cultural confrontation and even reconstruct the understanding of human civilization.
The book will be essential reading for scholars and students of Comparative Literature, Chinese Studies, and all those who are interested in cross-cultural communication and Chinese culture in general.
Biography
YUE Daiyun is a distinguished, award-winning professor at Peking University, China. She specializes in comparative literature and has dozens of highly influential publications in the field of comparative culture and beyond.
"This splendid and deftly translated book gives us a deep understanding of the development of comparative literature as it learned to embrace the many literatures of the world, and it explores the role of Chinese culture in using Taoist insights to illuminate the critical issues of the ever-modernizing twenty-first century. It is sure to become an essential text in this still evolving discipline."
Leo Damrosch, Professor of Harvard University
"Professor Yue Daiyun is one of the founders and pioneering figures of contemporary Chinese comparative literature. Chinese Thought in a Multi-cultural World is an insightful selection of her essays written at the turn of the century which is characterized by her unique cross-cultural perspective and border-writing style. It has indeed witnessed and promoted the rise of the Chinese School of comparative literature in the international academic community."
Wang Ning, Distinguished University Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
"Committed to cross-cultural quest with global vision, Professor Yue Daiyun has made the Chinese voice heard in the globalized, polyphonic world, and contributed enormously to the development of comparative literature in China."
Ji Jin, Professor of Soochow University, China
