Description
According to Des Forges (Chinese, U. of Massachusetts), there are four narrative tropes that constitute the conceptual foundation on which the social reality of the Chinese city of Shanghai is built: "(1) simultaneity; different things happening at the same time; (2) interruption: breaks in continuity; (3) mediation; a position between two sides that defines those sides as internally coherent and mutually exclusive entities; and (4) excess: the drive to expand without limit and consume without end." He examines the literary and visual dimensions of these narrative tropes as they developed in the genre of installment fiction set in Shanghai from the 1890s to the 1930s, arguing that they supply the imagery that defines the city and, more importantly, the very forms through with the city could be experienced as a business and entertainment center. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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For many in the west, "Shanghai" is the quintessence of East Asian modernity, whether imagined as glamorous and exciting, corrupt and impoverishing, or a complex synthesis of the good, the bad, and the ugly. How did "Shanghai" acquire this power? How did people across China and around the world decide that Shanghai was the place to be?Mediasphere Shanghai shows that partial answers to these questions can be found in the products of Shanghai’s media industry, particularly the Shanghai novel, a distinctive genre of installment fiction that flourished from the 1890s to the 1930s. Shanghai fiction supplies not only the imagery that we now consider typical of the city, but, more significantly, the very forms—simultaneity, interruption, mediation, and excess—through which the city could be experienced as a business and entertainment center and envisioned as the focal point of a mediasphere with a national and transnational reach. Existing paradigms of Shanghai culture tend to explain the city’s distinctive literary and visual aesthetics as merely the predictable result of economic conditions and social processes, but Alexander Des Forges maintains that literary texts and other cultural products themselves constitute a conceptual foundation for the city and construct the frame through which it is perceived.Working from a wide range of sources, including installment fiction, photographs, lithographic illustrations, maps, guidebooks, newspapers, and film, Des Forges demonstrates the significant social effects of aesthetic forms and practices. Mediasphere Shanghai offers a new perspective on the cultural history of the city and on the literature and culture of modern China in general.
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