The cambridge companion to modern french culture pdf download

Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book. Books Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip.

Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker. Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3. Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs. Invaluable for students of Chinese studies, this book includes a glossary of key terms, a chronology and a guide to further reading.

For the interested reader or traveler, it reveals a dynamic, diverse and fascinating culture, many aspects of which are now elucidated in English for the first time. It is based on a close analysis of adaptations of literary works by Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Blok, Bulgakov, Sholokhov, Rasputin, Abramov, and many others.

The book traces the transformation of literary works into the brilliant stagecraft that characterizes Russian theater. The result of all this intermingling tells much about the globalization of culture, and these chapters on sight and sound are excellent demonstrations of this process. In China at present, classical European music is probably as popular and performed as frequently as it is in any country in Europe.

In the same way, Chinese litera- ture in the twentieth century went through so many transformations due to influences from the outside world that to talk about a Chinese lit- erature needs many qualifications. If we consider the literature by Chinese diasporic writers about life in foreign lands in non-Chinese languages as part of the Chinese literary scene, the notion of post-Chinese is even more irresistible.

Wen originally came from the scratches made on ancient divination objects such as bones and tortoise shells, and was therefore a human attempt to reveal thought patterns in concrete form.

It was also the precursor to writing, with its function of communicating and categorizing the universe. Certainly, it captures the idea of people in the priestly or writ- ing classes making sense of the world.

It still has these connotations today. Colloquially, to say that somebody has culture you wenhua means that they have an education and can write. The verbalizing particle hua in wenhua thus indicates the transformative effect of culture. Through cultivation, wen- hua in theory can be achieved by all who aspire to it so that, through it, a cultured person is changed.

Chapter In Chinese, more than in most other languages, the writing system was the site of intense struggles throughout the twentieth centu- ry.

As Ping Chen shows in Chapter 10, the struggle waged around the writing system is not just linguistic, but highly political.

Difficulty in mastering language leads to debates about simplifying it, so that it is made more available to more people. Coupled with simplification, the more radical proposal argues for the advantages of Romanization and Pinyin, so that the mem- orization of thousands of characters is rendered unnecessary.

To start with, what is best is not fixed and is thus highly contentious. More importantly, it was promoted at a time of empire, when Britannia ruled the waves. So, presumably, the best came out of Britain, and Arnold did not hesitate to proclaim this belief. By contrast, China in the nineteenth century was experiencing some of the worst moments in its history.

Chinese culture then would not have been something that many people would have con- sidered to be the best. More likely, in England, in the pursuit of truth and beauty, most would have chosen the Keatsian fancies of classical Greece. While the colonial age in the nineteenth century gave the impres- sion that European culture represented the most advanced form of civilization, the two World Wars shook the complacency of many Euro- peans. Those wars in concert with the anti-colonialist movements that followed helped lead to changes in attitudes towards culture.

In both the West and China, the closing decades of Chapter More im- portantly, wenhua no longer needed to be based on wen, or the written. But while this conception of culture is more democratic, it is also more anarchic. What is not culture? How individualistic can one go? This ques- tion is especially important for migrant societies such as Australia.

In an age of globalization, it has also become increasingly important for other countries, including China. Thus, in the late twentieth century, the de- cline of the canons also brought consequences of uncertainty in literary and artistic fields.

Treating culture as synonymous with sets of meanings that distin- guish groups from each other helps to create in-groups and out-groups. As such, it was effectively harnessed throughout twentieth-century China to further nationalist goals. Chinese culture has drifted away from its original meaning of wenhua as an elevated text-based phenomenon based in China, to one which can be used by people who reside not just on the Chinese Mainland but throughout the world.

Wen refers not just to literary or cultural accomplishments. Having wen in the past referred to those who had passed the civil service examinations. Thus, the wenren, or the scholar-gentry, which in China has reproduced itself through the civil service examination system for centuries, was clearly the controlling class.

They usually have steady jobs and a regular income, such as teachers or bureaucrats who perpetuate social norms. In fact, the twentieth century, in our terms the period of modern Chinese culture, shows that this culture has become the site of intense struggle, with everyone claiming ownership of it, and in the process changing its meaning and content.

Ultimately this was about eulogizing con- ventional practices such as treasuring family ties, respecting the old, valuing formal education and honouring hard work — practices that are found in most societies.

Thus, no matter how we interpret modern Chi- nese culture, the only safe statement we can make about it is that it is vague and forever changing. Furthermore, the globalization process as a catalyst for change has not slowed down in the new millennium, but has become more intense than ever before.

This is not to say that local communities and cultures do not define individuals. Indeed, Daniel Overmyer in Chapter 9 emphasizes the over- riding importance of local traditions of ritual and belief as the major form of Chinese religion. In many respects, these local cultures have long been the foundation of what it means to be Chinese for the majority of the population. When asked where they are from, people generally respond by naming their ancestral community, and, by implication, all the tradi- tions it represents.

Notwithstanding this important qualification, Over- myer does provide an overview of the beliefs and rituals of the major Chapter The move towards globalization means that Chinese culture is something that is evolving almost in the way that was aptly summarized by Tan Sitong, who in attempted to integrate Confucianism, Christianity and Buddhism.

This Companion explores race, politics, gender, sexuality, identity, amongst other key literary themes in Black and Asian British literature. It will serve as a key resource for scholars, graduates, teachers and students alike. The fields presented here may offer a rather unusual fit with standard courses and disciplines, but the pressures on modern frameworks are intended.

It is not unusual, however, for study of early periods to offer some combination of "literature," "history," "archaeology," "art history," or other field.

Studies in antiquity and the Renaissance do this regularly; and medieval studies was from the outset defined in an equally capacious frame"