Description
Book SynopsisIn the light of Chinese prosody and various mutually illuminating major cases from the original English, Chinese, French, Japanese and German classical literary texts, the book explores the possibility of discovering a road not taken within the road well-trodden in literature. In an approach of what Wittgenstein calls criss-crossing, this monographic study, the first ever of this nature, as Roger T. Ames points out in the Foreword, also emphasizes a pivotal recognition that these Chinese values [revealed in the book] are immediately relevant to the Western narrative as well; the book demonstrates, in other words, how such a criss-crossing approach would be unequivocally possible as long as our critical attention be adequately turned to or pivoted upon the trivial matters, a posteriori, in accordance with the live syntactic-prosodic context, such as pauses, stresses, phonemes, function words, or the at once text-enlivened and text-enlivening ambiguity of parts of speech, which often va
Trade ReviewThis is a fascinating journey search for le mot juste in a worded world, packed with sharp, rich, interdisciplinary, cross-cultural insights into eye-catching, ear-enamoring, and soul-nourishing Chinese poetry and comparative prosody. -- Robin R. Wang, author of Yinyang: The Way of heaven and Earth in Chinese Thought and Culture
This book integrates the studies of prosody, literature and philosophy, revealing Chen’s deep understanding of Western philosophy and Chinese classics. From a linguistic point of view, especially a prosodic one, the book studies Chinese poetic literature with a comparative view of Western poetic literature, exhibiting multidimensional perspectives with cutting-edge discussions of intimate interactions of sound, thought and literary diction. Chen has brought fresh air to literary studies and new insights to modern linguistics with this book. -- Shengli Feng, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Table of ContentsForeword by Roger T. Ames Acknowledgments Part One: Content Words Chapter 1: A Word that Makes a World of Difference Chapter 2: “Le Mot Juste” and “Content Words” Chapter 3: “Les Mots Justes” as Choices Part Two: Function Words Chapter 4: The Unheard Melodies of the Trivial Chapter 5: Indispensability of Function Words as Life-Makers Chapter 6: Serendipity of the Familiar Chapter 7: Function words as “Les Mots Justes” Chapter 8: “Museum Effect” as “Le Mot Juste” – Mediated “Symphonic Tapestry” Bibliography
