cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/6735406
I plan to read this book myself.
Here’s an excerpt from the review:
Hu Yamin is a prominent Chinese scholar specializing in comparative Marxist literary criticism. Her recent work, The Contemporary Construction of the Chinese Form of Marxist Literary Criticism, offers a historical-geographic comparative analysis of Western and Chinese Marxist literary theories. Her previous translated work includes a two-volume edited set titled Keywords in Western Literary Criticism and Contemporary China (Routledge, 2020).
The new book revisits these theoretical systems with a fresh reading of classical Marxist literary theory. It systematically examines Chinese Marxist literary criticism, highlighting the unique historical and cultural trajectories that have influenced its development in China’s revolutionary process over the past century.
The Contemporary Construction is organized into seven chapters, each concentrating on a fundamental term or concept essential to contemporary Chinese theory: “the people,” “the nation,” politics, praxis, technology, the capitalist market, and value theory in literary criticism. Hu argues that China’s historical traditions and evolving social conditions cannot be fully comprehended through Western Marxist frameworks. She explains that these frameworks fail to capture the complexities of China’s anti-colonial roots, revolutionary era, and socialist-oriented modernization.
Although she does not provide a specific definition of Western Marxism, the context suggests it refers to the body of Marxist thought produced by individuals whose political and intellectual work primarily occurs in imperialist or imperialist-adjacent countries. In fact, Hu discusses the work of prominent academics who associate themselves with Marxian thought but generally distance themselves from Communist Parties and the numerous workers’ or socialist parties that exist in imperialist countries. (This particular flaw in the book’s argument reinforces vogue academic designations of Western Marxism as purely a theoretical stance uninterested in political struggle.)
Hu positions Chinese Marxism as historically and ideologically distinct from Western Marxism, challenging the idea that Western theoretical models can be universally applied to all societies. In her comparative approach, Hu engages with Western Marxism but situates it as a foil for understanding the particularities of Chinese Marxist thought. In drawing this comparison, she notes the significant shift in Western Marxism in the early 20th century from focusing on class and revolution to emphasizing culture and technology. This shift, she argues, diverges from the concerns that have shaped Chinese Marxist literary theory, which remains focused on revolutionary and social struggles.
Hu also distinguishes her work from earlier models of the “Sinification” of Marxism, which sought to adapt Western Marxist ideas to Chinese conditions. Instead, she contends that Chinese Marxist literary criticism has developed unique problems and frameworks separate from Western thought that no longer qualify as simple adaptations. Chinese Marxist literary criticism possesses its own identity. Hu’s analysis highlights the critical role of Chinese literary criticism in supporting socialist construction in China, urging vigilance against capitalism’s corrupting values while balancing aesthetic, social, and economic values in the market context. As China begins the process of socialist construction, Hu argues, the Chinese form’s critical role is to study literary developments to maintain “vigilance against the hegemony of capital and pursuing the contradictory unity of aesthetic value, social benefit, and economic benefit, while fully considering market factors and understanding market mechanisms” (7-8).