‘Nella storia’ e ‘sulla storia’. Discontinuità e cosmopolitismo nelle narrazioni letterarie della Cina moderna

This paper analyses how, beyond the traditional link that connects literature with history and historiography, modern Chinese literature has both experienced the dominance of history and acted as an effective agent of change in China’s historical events. Narrating the past is a crucial activity for both literature and politics. Consequently, it is inevitable for Chinese writers to frequently engage with political power, either challenging or accommodating official discourse. A distinctive element that characterizes the relationship between history and literature has been the sharing by writers and literary movements of transnational tendencies from the Marxist concept of history to postmodernism.