From Counter-Canon to Hypercanon in a Postcanonical Age: Eileen Chang as Text and Myth

doi:10.1007/s11702-011-0144-8

Front Liter Stud Chin

2011, Vol. 5

Issue (4) : 610-632 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11702-011-0144-8

research-article

From Counter-Canon to Hypercanon in a Postcanonical Age: Eileen Chang as Text and Myth

ZHANG Yingjin(

)

Department of Literature, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0410, USA School of Humanities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

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Abstract

This article revisits the history of canon formation in modern Chinese literary study and explores the complexities and quandaries of literary historiography as evidenced in the case of Eileen Chang (Zhang Ailing 张爱玲). Chang’s change of fortune from counter-canon to hypercanon addresses not simply the aesthetic imperatives of textual production and critical evaluation, but also the contingencies and vicissitudes of literary criticism and the periodic self-refashioning of critical concepts and values. Simultaneously operating as text and myth, the spectacular “Eileen Chang phenomenon” compels us to confront the intertwined issues of canon, discipline, and pedagogy.

Keywords Eileen Chang/Zhang Ailing canon formations literary history contingency myth pedagogy

Corresponding Author(s): ZHANG Yingjin,Email:yinzhang@usu.edu

Issue Date: 05 December 2011

Cite this article:

ZHANG Yingjin. From Counter-Canon to Hypercanon in a Postcanonical Age: Eileen Chang as Text and Myth[J]. Front Liter Stud Chin, 2011, 5(4): 610-632.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/flsc/EN/10.1007/s11702-011-0144-8
https://academic.hep.com.cn/flsc/EN/Y2011/V5/I4/610

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