THE QUESTION OF THE SOUL IN AVANT-GARDE LITERATURE (WITH A FOCUS ON CHINESE LITERATURE)
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Date
2026
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Plovdiv University Press
Abstract
In the 1980s, many Chinese writers insisted that literature should focus on the human psyche, which had been long neglected until then. This deceptively familiar and banal call actually raises numerous questions. What exactly is the “soul”? Which “soul” exactly? Does it differ from the Western “soul”? From which Western “soul”? What is the context of this call, given the different historical development of the concept in China and Europe? What is the connection between avant-garde literature and the soul? In contrast to the apparent clarity of the word’s everyday usage, the answers to these questions require deconstruction and careful xamination of the concept’s articulations, revealing a range of research possibilities, some of which this study explores.