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Transcending Exoticism? Sound and Voice in Dai Sijie and François Cheng

Li, Shuangyi LU (2021) In Francophone Postcolonial Studies 12.
Abstract
Francophone Chinese writers Dai Sijie and François Cheng are both first-generation migrants in France, whose French-language literary works have received the highest French institutional recognitions (from the Prix Femina to the Grand Prix de la francophonie de l'Académie française). Existing scholarship on the impact of their native Chinese language on these writers' French texts focuses almost exclusively on the visual aspects. Different from such oculocentric approaches, this chapter conceptualizes Franco-Chinese literature as exophone ("exotic sounding") writing and scrutinizes the auditory aesthetic in the two writers' different literary engagements with sound and voice. With access to both the sound and the image of Chinese and... (More)
Francophone Chinese writers Dai Sijie and François Cheng are both first-generation migrants in France, whose French-language literary works have received the highest French institutional recognitions (from the Prix Femina to the Grand Prix de la francophonie de l'Académie française). Existing scholarship on the impact of their native Chinese language on these writers' French texts focuses almost exclusively on the visual aspects. Different from such oculocentric approaches, this chapter conceptualizes Franco-Chinese literature as exophone ("exotic sounding") writing and scrutinizes the auditory aesthetic in the two writers' different literary engagements with sound and voice. With access to both the sound and the image of Chinese and French, Dai and Cheng are seen not only to play with Western fantasy, but also to rework and reconfigure, cross-culturally, the dynamic relationship between phone and graph in their literary works, especially in relation to exoticism. Indeed, it is ultimately through sound and voice that both writers attempt to think beyond Chinese-French binary tensions and reflect more synthetically on literary and human experiences of language that are universal and at the same highly individual. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
in press
subject
host publication
Sounds Senses
series title
Francophone Postcolonial Studies
editor
Elhariry, Yasser
volume
12
publisher
Liverpool University Press
ISBN
978-1-800-85688-2
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
8802d130-2953-4f77-8641-8265a5a9c8fd
date added to LUP
2021-03-25 00:28:51
date last changed
2021-04-13 10:13:33
@inbook{8802d130-2953-4f77-8641-8265a5a9c8fd,
  abstract     = {{Francophone Chinese writers Dai Sijie and François Cheng are both first-generation migrants in France, whose French-language literary works have received the highest French institutional recognitions (from the Prix Femina to the Grand Prix de la francophonie de l'Académie française). Existing scholarship on the impact of their native Chinese language on these writers' French texts focuses almost exclusively on the visual aspects. Different from such oculocentric approaches, this chapter conceptualizes Franco-Chinese literature as exophone ("exotic sounding") writing and scrutinizes the auditory aesthetic in the two writers' different literary engagements with sound and voice. With access to both the sound and the image of Chinese and French, Dai and Cheng are seen not only to play with Western fantasy, but also to rework and reconfigure, cross-culturally, the dynamic relationship between phone and graph in their literary works, especially in relation to exoticism. Indeed, it is ultimately through sound and voice that both writers attempt to think beyond Chinese-French binary tensions and reflect more synthetically on literary and human experiences of language that are universal and at the same highly individual.}},
  author       = {{Li, Shuangyi}},
  booktitle    = {{Sounds Senses}},
  editor       = {{Elhariry, Yasser}},
  isbn         = {{978-1-800-85688-2}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Liverpool University Press}},
  series       = {{Francophone Postcolonial Studies}},
  title        = {{Transcending Exoticism? Sound and Voice in Dai Sijie and François Cheng}},
  volume       = {{12}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}