Shanghai Literary Imaginings: A City in Transformation [Hardcover]

This book draws on a wide range of methods—including approaches from literary studies, cultural studies, and urban sociology—to analyze the transformation of Shanghai through rapid growth and widespread urban renewal. Lena Scheen explores the literary imaginings of the city, its past, present, and future, in order to understand the effects of that urban transformation on both the psychological state of Shanghai’s citizens and their perception of the spaces they inhabit.

Lena Scheenis assistant professor faculty fellow at New York University Shanghai.

Acknowledgements
Conventions
 
Introduction
Shanghai Literary Imaginings: The City of Feeling Rising out of the City of Fact
The City of Fact
A City in Transformation
Literature in Shanghai and Shanghai in Literature
This Book
 
1 Mappings
Drawing Mental Maps of Memories
Mapping Shanghai
 “City Map”: The Series and the Authors
Literary Maps and Mental Maps
Mapping Memories
A Mental Map of Hongkou
Concluding Remarks
 
2 Seduction
Reproducing the City as Femme Fatale
Weihui and Ge Hongbing: Life and Works
Critical Reception: Selling Her Body and Selling His Intellect
A Complicated Love Affair: Shanghai and theFemme Fatale
Weihui: The Screaming Body of aShanghai Babe
Ge Hongbing: Whispering Souls on aSandbed
An Imagined Love Affair: Coco and Zhuge
Concluding Remarks
 
3 Nostalgia
Restoring Old Buildings to Rewrite the Past
Wang Anyi and Chen Danyan: Life and Works
Shanghai Nostalgia: A Culture of Reappearance
Wang Anyi:The Song of Everlasting Sorrowof Shanghai’sLongtang
Chen Danyan: The Literary Preservation ofShanghai Memorabilia
Concluding Remarks