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The first English collection of translated essays, by Chinese literary scholars, writers, and critics, this volume focuses on the legacy of socialist culture and post-socialist phenomena within the context of capitalist globalization. By rethinking socialism, literature, and culture in relation to the intellectual and cultural trends since the start of the reform and by debating the rise of the ´new left´ culture, this book seeks to offer critical voices while evoking the themes of the socialist past to bear on the 21st-century Chinese intellectual and cultural scenes.

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Table of Contents Introduction: Why Does Socialist Culture Matter Today? PART I: RETHINKING SOCIALISM, LITERATURE, AND CULTURE 1. Shanghai as a Socialist City and Spatial Reconstruction; Luo Gang and Li Yun 2. One Village and One Novel: Revisiting Wenquantun Village; He Jixian and Lu Taiguang 3. Gender Politics and the Crisis of Socialist Aesthetics; Mao Jian 4. The Crisis of Socialism and Efforts to Overcome It; Cai Xiang PART II: CRITICAL REFLECTION ON LITERATURE AND CULTURE SINCE THE REFORM 5. Mythification of the Reform-Era History: A Social-Historical Analysis of the Avant-Garde Literature; Liu Fusheng 6. Genealogy and Ideology of the Avant-Garde Fiction; He Guimei 7. Eight Key Terms in Literary Criticism; Cao Zhenglu 8. Enjoyment: A New Experiment on Surrealist Writing: A Dialogue between Li Tuo and Yan Lianke PART III: DEBATING THE RISE OF ´NEW LEFT´ CULTURE AND ´SUBALTERN LITERATURE´ IN THE REFORM ERA 9. The Rise of ´Subaltern Literature´ in the 21st Century: A Speech at the Utopian Forum (2007); Li Yunlei 10. A Difficult Breakthrough: On Representing Subaltern Experiences; Nan Fan 11. Che Guevara: Notes on the Play, Its Production, and Reception; Huang Jisu PART IV: PEOPLE´S LITERATURE AND CULTURE: FROM PAST TO FUTURE 12. The White-Haired Girl: Limitations and Potential of the New Interpretation; He Jixian 13. Subjective Identity, Revolutionary Consciousness, and People´s Literature: Zhang Chengzhi and His Literature in the New Era; Zhang Hong 14. People´s Literature: An Unfinished Historical Project; Kuang Xinnian

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"Re-engaging socialist cultural texts, the editors and contributors all prominent intellectual figures or leading New Left thinkers from China call for a vigorous engagement with the socialist past as ´a real force of critique and contestation as well as a source of aspiration.´ Rang[ing] from an analysis of literary and cultural texts produced during the socialist era to an investigation of recent New Left literature and critiques, the essays in Debating the Socialist Legacy enjoin readers to ponder the imposing and in many cases urgent challenges of rethinking socialism in the post-revolutionary age. How might key socialist concepts be redefined and reimagined in the present? For example, in the case of that crucial term, ´the people,´ should it be broadened [ ] to reflect contemporary socioeconomic realities [ ] or should it be narrowed to indicate subalterns/peasants/workers in contemporary China? This is but one of the daunting but pressing issues raised by the essays in this timely and engaging volume." - Jie Liu, Professor of Chinese, University of the Pacific, USA (Modern Chinese Literature and Culture Resource Center Publication, 2015)

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