Chronology Entry
Year
1989
Text
F. Scott Fitzgerald and China general
Norman Michael Bock : The Chinese university audience is bound to note that Fitzgerald wrote with simultaneous admiration and pity of American Dreamers such as Jay Gatsby and Dexter Freen, whose capacity for imagination brought out the best-and the worst-in them. These Chinese readers, their interest kindled by the controversial anthology Ten great Chinese tragedies (1983), are likely to inquire about Fitzgerald's relation to the 'tragic' tradition of the West. Since the appearance of that volume of famous plays from the classical period, Chinese have debated with increasing intensity whether Western definitions of tragedy apply to their culture. The discussion of culture- and period-specific notions of tragey engendered by the writings of Fitzgerald and oth r classic American authors, promise to initiate and increasingly animated exchange of ideas and attitudes, through which Chinese and American intellectuals gain a better understanding of each other, themselves, and their two cultures.
The rich boy appears to focus on the superficial social skirmishing of the privileged classes, a subject that will fascinate Chinese students unfamiliar with class divisions in the United States, but the story also provides keen insight into American conceptions of selfhood and Fitzgerald's preferred ethic of middle class democracy.
Babyon revisited gives Chinese readers a glimpse of the American self in disarray.
Norman Michael Bock : The Chinese university audience is bound to note that Fitzgerald wrote with simultaneous admiration and pity of American Dreamers such as Jay Gatsby and Dexter Freen, whose capacity for imagination brought out the best-and the worst-in them. These Chinese readers, their interest kindled by the controversial anthology Ten great Chinese tragedies (1983), are likely to inquire about Fitzgerald's relation to the 'tragic' tradition of the West. Since the appearance of that volume of famous plays from the classical period, Chinese have debated with increasing intensity whether Western definitions of tragedy apply to their culture. The discussion of culture- and period-specific notions of tragey engendered by the writings of Fitzgerald and oth r classic American authors, promise to initiate and increasingly animated exchange of ideas and attitudes, through which Chinese and American intellectuals gain a better understanding of each other, themselves, and their two cultures.
The rich boy appears to focus on the superficial social skirmishing of the privileged classes, a subject that will fascinate Chinese students unfamiliar with class divisions in the United States, but the story also provides keen insight into American conceptions of selfhood and Fitzgerald's preferred ethic of middle class democracy.
Babyon revisited gives Chinese readers a glimpse of the American self in disarray.
Mentioned People (1)
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
(St. Paul, Minn. 1896-1940 Hollywood) : Schriftsteller
Subjects
Literature : Occident : United States of America
Documents (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1989 | Bock, Norman Michael. Expressions of selfhood in classic American fiction : readings from a Chinese cultural perspective. (Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms International, 1989). Diss. Univ. of Connecticut, 1989. [Betr. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner]. | Publication / Twa18 |