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Affective Cosmopolitanism: Comparison Methodology and a Case Study
The Center for the Study of Globalization and Cultures (CSGC), Department of Comparative Literature, and School of Chinese present:
Affective Cosmopolitanism: Comparison Methodology and a Case Study
Speaker: Sijia Yao, Assistant Professor of Chinese Language and Culture, Soka University of America
Moderator: Alvin K. Wong, Assistant Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, HKU
Date: Thursday, May 16, 2024
Time: 4:30 pm Hong Kong Time
Venue: CRT-7.30, 7/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, HKU
All are welcome. Registration is required.
This talk draws on Sijia Yao’s recently published book “Cosmopolitan Love” (University of Michigan Press, 2023) in which she proposes a new notion of cosmopolitanism by examining the love stories of D. H. Lawrence and Eileen Chang. Instead of adopting the regular inquiry modes of comparison between East and West, she experiments with a comparison methodology, the third term comparison, which establishes at the outset a purpose that allows the concentration on two texts from two very distinctive cultural contexts, reestablishing and reshaping relationships. She will introduce such an approach, which provides the conceptual tools to establish a China–West purposive comparative paradigm that structures the whole book. She demonstrates the method with a case study.
Sijia Yao (PhD Purdue University) is an Assistant Professor of Chinese Language and Culture at Soka University of America. She has published articles on Sinophone literature, film, music, and culture in journals such as “The Comparatist,” “Comparative Literature Studies,” “Tamkang Review,” and “Telos.” Her book, “Cosmopolitan Love: Utopian Vision in D. H. Lawrence and Eileen Chang” was published by the University of Michigan Press in November 2023.
This event is held as part of the New Directions in Eileen Chang Studies Lecture Series | 張愛玲研究新方向講座系列. It is co-hosted by the School of Chinese and Department of Comparative Literature, HKU, and co-sponsored by the Louis Cha Fund for Chinese Studies & East/West Studies in the Faculty of Arts & Center for the Study of Globalization and Cultures (CSGC).
