Andrea Bachner
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231164528
- eISBN:
- 9780231536301
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231164528.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This book looks at the history and usage of Chinese script to pinpoint the multiple connections that exist between languages, scripts, medial expressions, and cultural and national identities. It ...
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This book looks at the history and usage of Chinese script to pinpoint the multiple connections that exist between languages, scripts, medial expressions, and cultural and national identities. It shows how new communication and information technologies provide distinct challenges and possibilities for Chinese script, which, unlike alphabetic or other phonetic scripts, relies on multiple signifying principles. It describes how, in recent decades, this multiplicity has generated a rich corpus of reflection and experimentation in literature, film, visual and performance art, and design and architecture, within both China and in other parts of the West. Through a study of intercultural representations, exchanges and tensions, the book focuses on the concrete “scripting” of identity and alterity. It advances a new understanding of the links between identity and medium and provides a critique of the articulations that rely on single, monolithic, and univocal definitions of writing. Overall, it shows how Chinese writing can teach us how to read and construct mediality and cultural identity in interculturally responsible ways and also how to scrutinize, critique, and yet appreciate and enjoy the powerful multi-medial creativity embodied in writing.Less
This book looks at the history and usage of Chinese script to pinpoint the multiple connections that exist between languages, scripts, medial expressions, and cultural and national identities. It shows how new communication and information technologies provide distinct challenges and possibilities for Chinese script, which, unlike alphabetic or other phonetic scripts, relies on multiple signifying principles. It describes how, in recent decades, this multiplicity has generated a rich corpus of reflection and experimentation in literature, film, visual and performance art, and design and architecture, within both China and in other parts of the West. Through a study of intercultural representations, exchanges and tensions, the book focuses on the concrete “scripting” of identity and alterity. It advances a new understanding of the links between identity and medium and provides a critique of the articulations that rely on single, monolithic, and univocal definitions of writing. Overall, it shows how Chinese writing can teach us how to read and construct mediality and cultural identity in interculturally responsible ways and also how to scrutinize, critique, and yet appreciate and enjoy the powerful multi-medial creativity embodied in writing.
