The Masses: Writing and Imagination of Modern Chinese Intellectuals
by Xiao Tie
About This Novel
In China's transformation from a dynasty and empire to a nation-state, the masses, as a central concept, have become the imaginative carrier for modern intellectuals to think about themselves and the country, and to explore enlightenment and revolution. Through a close reading of novels, philosophy, poetry, and psychological treatises, this book analyzes the centrality and historicity of the masses in modern Chinese cultural and political imagination. It also places Chinese mass discourse in the global intellectual context of the first half of the twentieth century and explores overlooked transnational interactions and differences. This is an interdisciplinary study that synthesizes literary studies, intellectual history, critical theory, and the history of human science, highlighting the entanglements between modern forms of human scientific knowledge, emerging artistic expressions, and changing political demands. As the first in-depth study of mass aesthetics and politics in modern Chinese literature and thought, this book examines the promises and fetters of modern collective imagination in the revolutionary period, and looks at the rethinking of collective life in the post-revolutionary period.
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