MLA 2018: The “Arrival” of Jia Pingwa in World Literature: Translation and Interpretation

Jiwei Xiao Announcement
Location
New York, United States
Subject Fields
Area Studies, Asian History / Studies, Chinese History / Studies, East Asian History / Studies, Literature

A Roundtable sponsored by the LLC Modern and Contemporary Chinese Forum for the MLA Annual Meeting in New York, Jan. 4-7, 2018.

Jia Pingwa is considered one of the most original and influential novelists in contemporary China. A prolific writer, he has nonetheless been “un(der-)translated” for a long time. The English-language scholarship on the author is also slim. A surge in translations of his novels, published and upcoming, gives us the hope that we might be finally seeing the arrival of Jia Pingwa in the international realm of literature. What is the status now—of Jia Pingwa in translation and in criticism—in the United States and beyond? What prospects and obstacles lie ahead in Jia Pingwa’s emergence in world literature? Would a growing international stature, mediated through translation and critical interpretation, in turn affect his writing? How does Jia Pingwa’s case help us understand the situation of teaching and conducting research on Chinese fiction as world literature?

We invite translators, scholars, critics, editors, and publishers to participate in a roundtable on Jia Pingwa’s work in translation. The roundtable is a guaranteed session sponsored by the LLC Modern and Contemporary Chinese Forum. It will be devoted to an extensive conversation on Jia, who will attend this coming year’s MLA meeting. As this is a roundtable, we do not seek paper proposals. So please send a brief statement of interest relating your potential contribution to the roundtable and a bio to jiweixiao@gmail.com by March 7. The final decision for the choice of panelists will be made by the five-member Executive Committee of the LLC Modern and Contemporary Forum.

Contact Email
jiweixiao@gmail.com