THE CHINESE NOBEL COMPLEX AND PEACEBUILDING: GAO XINGJIAN AND MO YAN AS CASE STUDIES

• Authors: Cheuk Michael Ka-Chi
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This article offers a reappraisal of the Nobel Prize in Literature as a facilitator of global mutual understanding, using the polarizing receptions of Nobel laureates Gao Xingjian and Mo Yan as case studies. Instead of describing the relationship between Chinese literary circles and the Prize as an irrational “Nobel complex”, I contend that readers and writers of Chinese literature have identified various uses in the Prize’s Eurocentric outline, particularly its emphasis on national allegory, or what the Swedish Academy refers to as “witness literature”. I further argue that Gao and Mo Yan strategically comply with Western demands for national allegories, in order to preserve the forgotten voices from the Chinese Cultural Revolution beyond national and cultural borders.

Keywords

EN

NOBEL PRIZE; GAO XINGJIAN; MO YAN; CHINESE LITERATURE

• Publisher: Institute of World Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: World Literature Studies
• Year: 2024
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 61 – 78

Contributors

author

Cheuk Michael Ka-Chi

• School of Arts and Social Sciences, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong SAR, China

• https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4486-7821

Identifiers

DOI

10.31577/WLS.2024.16.4.5