Asian Studies Seminar Series: Keru Cai In brief Date - 22 January 2025Venue - Project Room 1.06, 50 George SquareSpeaker - Dr Keru Cai (University of St Andrews)Title - From Russia, With Squalor: Poverty in Modern Chinese Realism About the eventThis talk argues that twentieth-century Chinese writers drew upon Russian texts about the socially downtrodden to describe poverty, in a bid to enrich Chinese culture by creating a syncretic new realism. It will also examine why Russian literature, itself long preoccupied with a problem of belatedness vis-à-vis Western Europe, occupied a privileged place for Chinese intellectuals of this era.Inspired by Russian writers such as Gogol, Turgenev, and Chekhov, modern Chinese realist writers turned to the topic of material poverty to convey their sense of textual poverty and national backwardness. The combination of a radically new subject matter and experimentation with diverse literary resources, indigenous and foreign, generated major innovations in narrative technique.Depicting poverty allowed writers to revolutionize the nascent forms of modern Chinese narrative, innovating strategies of representing the nation, the social other, time, and space, while problematizing their deployment of squalor for aesthetic purposes.About the speakerDr Keru Cai's research focuses on modern Chinese appropriations from Russian, English, and French literatures. She has published widely on Chinese and comparative literature, in journals such as Modern Language Quarterly, Comparative Literature, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Prism: Theory and Modern Chinese Literature, Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies, and Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, and Reviews.Dr Cai's book, 'Poverty in Modern Chinese Realism: From Russia, with Squalor', is forthcoming with Oxford University Press (2025). Prior to joining the University of St Andrews, she taught at Penn State University and held a Fellowship by Examination at Magdalen College, University of Oxford.How to attendThis event is free to attend and open to all. No registration is required, simply turn up on the day.Are you interested in studying with us?We are the only university in Scotland to offer full undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in both Chinese and Japanese, as well as postgraduate programmes in Korean Studies and East Asian Studies. Find out more about Asian Studies at Edinburgh Jan 22 2025 16.00 - 18.00 Asian Studies Seminar Series: Keru Cai An in-person seminar by Dr Keru Cai (University of St Andrews) titled 'From Russia, With Squalor: Poverty in Modern Chinese Realism'. Project Room 1.06 50 George Square University of Edinburgh EH8 9LH Find the venue: 50 George Square
Asian Studies Seminar Series: Keru Cai In brief Date - 22 January 2025Venue - Project Room 1.06, 50 George SquareSpeaker - Dr Keru Cai (University of St Andrews)Title - From Russia, With Squalor: Poverty in Modern Chinese Realism About the eventThis talk argues that twentieth-century Chinese writers drew upon Russian texts about the socially downtrodden to describe poverty, in a bid to enrich Chinese culture by creating a syncretic new realism. It will also examine why Russian literature, itself long preoccupied with a problem of belatedness vis-à-vis Western Europe, occupied a privileged place for Chinese intellectuals of this era.Inspired by Russian writers such as Gogol, Turgenev, and Chekhov, modern Chinese realist writers turned to the topic of material poverty to convey their sense of textual poverty and national backwardness. The combination of a radically new subject matter and experimentation with diverse literary resources, indigenous and foreign, generated major innovations in narrative technique.Depicting poverty allowed writers to revolutionize the nascent forms of modern Chinese narrative, innovating strategies of representing the nation, the social other, time, and space, while problematizing their deployment of squalor for aesthetic purposes.About the speakerDr Keru Cai's research focuses on modern Chinese appropriations from Russian, English, and French literatures. She has published widely on Chinese and comparative literature, in journals such as Modern Language Quarterly, Comparative Literature, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Prism: Theory and Modern Chinese Literature, Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies, and Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, and Reviews.Dr Cai's book, 'Poverty in Modern Chinese Realism: From Russia, with Squalor', is forthcoming with Oxford University Press (2025). Prior to joining the University of St Andrews, she taught at Penn State University and held a Fellowship by Examination at Magdalen College, University of Oxford.How to attendThis event is free to attend and open to all. No registration is required, simply turn up on the day.Are you interested in studying with us?We are the only university in Scotland to offer full undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in both Chinese and Japanese, as well as postgraduate programmes in Korean Studies and East Asian Studies. Find out more about Asian Studies at Edinburgh Jan 22 2025 16.00 - 18.00 Asian Studies Seminar Series: Keru Cai An in-person seminar by Dr Keru Cai (University of St Andrews) titled 'From Russia, With Squalor: Poverty in Modern Chinese Realism'. Project Room 1.06 50 George Square University of Edinburgh EH8 9LH Find the venue: 50 George Square
Jan 22 2025 16.00 - 18.00 Asian Studies Seminar Series: Keru Cai An in-person seminar by Dr Keru Cai (University of St Andrews) titled 'From Russia, With Squalor: Poverty in Modern Chinese Realism'.
