Americanization of French Theory and the Rise of “Chinese Postism”

Abstract

Chinese Postism refers to Chinese versions of poststructuralism, postmodernism and postcolonialism, three major western theoretical trends prefixed with “post.” Chinese Postism is largely retranslations of English translations (and interpretations) of French theories of poststructuralism and postmodernism, as well as postcolonialism as American appropriation of French theories. Revisiting the French- American-Chinese journey of theory may help uncover the broader political and ideological changes underlying the intellectual and academic trends.

Keywords:

• Americanization
• French Theory
• Chinese Postism
• poststructuralism
• postmodernism
• postcolonialism

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Jameson’s “Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism” (New Left Review, no. 146: 52–92) was published in 1984, and in 1986 his “Third-World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism” appeared in Social Text, no. 15: 65–88.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kang Liu

Kang Liu is visiting professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, and professor of Duke University. He is an Elected Member of Academia Europaea (The Academy of Europe) since 2015. He is the author of twelve books, and written widely in scholarly journals in both English and Chinese. His research ranges from contemporary Chinese media and culture, globalization, to Marxism and aesthetics.

Dingwen Wei

Dingwen Wei is lecturer at Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, China, and visiting scholar at Duke University in 2022. Her research interests include comparative literature and sociology of knowledge. Her recent publication, “Dual Challenges to China’s World Literature Studies in the Global Scholarship,” studies world literature as knowledge production in the 21^st century.