The Chinese Nobel complex and peacebuilding: Gao Xingjian and Mo Yan as case studies
The Chinese Nobel complex and peacebuilding: Gao Xingjian and Mo Yan as case studies

Summary/Abstract: This article offers a reappraisal of the Nobel Prize in Literature as a facilitator of global mutual understanding, using the polarizing receptions of Nobel laureates Gao Xingjian and Mo Yan as case studies. Instead of describing the relationship between Chinese literary circles and the Prize as an irrational “Nobel complex”, I contend that readers and writers of Chinese literature have identified various uses in the Prize’s Eurocentric outline, particularly its emphasis on national allegory, or what the Swedish Academy refers to as “witness literature”. I further argue that Gao and Mo Yan strategically comply with Western demands for national allegories, in order to preserve the forgotten voices from the Chinese Cultural Revolution beyond national and cultural borders.

• Details
• Contents