Yingjin Zhang: Worlds of Literature
Through a consideration of the introductions that Yingjin Zhang wrote for the first and final solo-edited volumes of his career, China in a Polycentric World (1998) and A World History of Chinese Literature (2023), this essay examines some of the concerns with the relationship between Chinese and world literature that preoccupied Zhang throughout his career. In particular, he approached the category of Chinese literature and culture as being grounded in a concept of Chineseness understood not as a national but rather as a cultural category. Moreover, he stressed that Chinese and world literature are best understood not as discrete concepts or categories, but rather as dynamic practices, which has allowed them to consistently exceed and transcend political or institutional attempts to limit the literary field’s nominal scope or possibilities.
