Visual Subjectivity in Chinese and American Thought and Literature

"How can one compare what is incomparable? Visual Subjectivity in Chinese and American Thought and Literature dispels the traditional worry of “comparative literature” by focusing on four masterpieces and other works of American and Chinese literature from the perspective of intellectual thought on vision, visuality, and subjectivity, showing that in order to read them adequately one must compare ways of seeing that reveal a whole subjectivity. Combining thought-provoking theory and crisp close readings, this masterful book exemplifies world-literature criticism at its best."

- Jean-Michel Rabaté, University of Pennsylvania, Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences

"This book proposes a wholly original and probing approach, grounded in Chinese and Western concepts of vision, visuality, and visual subjectivity, to some of the most celebrated masterpieces of Chinese and American literature. Its incisive analyses of The Plum in the Golden Vase,The Story of the Stone, Moby Dick, and The Scarlet Letter are historically and contextually meticulously informed. In addition, the volume is rich in fascinating asides on many other worksof the Eastern and Western literary traditions, showing great potential for yielding fresh insights into world literature. It is a must for all scholars seriously interested in comparative and world literature as well as literary theory."

-Theo D'haen, author of A History of World Literature and Member of the Academia Europaea

"Scholars of visual culture have explored in great depth the relation between the “I” and the “eye” in the formation of human subjectivity. But the application of the ocularcentric model of the subject to the representation of characters in literary fiction is something rather new. This comparative study of “visual subjectivity” in modern Chinese and American novels clarifies the way seen and seeing characters in narrative reflect deep cultural traditions such as Transcendentalism, Daoism, and Confucianism. This book is a valuable contribution, both to comparative literature, and to the study of human vision as a cultural construction."

-W. J. T. Mitchell, Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor, English and Art History, The University of Chicago.