The Problem of a Chinese Aesthetic

Download or read book The Problem of a Chinese Aesthetic written by Haun Saussy and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Problem of a Chinese Aesthetic calls for and applies a new model of comparative literature - one that, instead of taking for granted the commensurability of traditions and texts, gives incompatibility and contradiction their due. Exposing contemporary literary theory to the risks of ancient Chinese literature (and vice versa), this book considers a linked series of case studies. To what degree does the translation between languages and texts that we call comparative literature depend on allegory or translation within a single text or language? The author offers an important, new perspective on the reading of the Shih-ching or Book of Odes and the question of allegory and metaphor in the Chinese poetic tradition.