“Eastern Literature” as Happenstance?

Abstract

This essay examines how “Eastern literature” was perceived and presented in the making of world literature in 1980s China, an era of political and cultural opening-up, through the lens of Indian literature included in the magazine Shijie Wenxue. Although the magazine’s editors discursively championed the idea of geographic all-inclusiveness, the larger conjuncture brought “Western literature” to the forefront of attention. “Eastern” authors and texts, in contrast, were confined to a state of “happenstance,” due to the occasional manner of their presentation. However, by re-reading Shijie Wenxue on three levels, I argue that the magazine managed to produce a relatively eclectic and “thick” knowledge of Indian literature, which would have otherwise been neglected because of its tokenistic appearance and low visibility. Adopting a more creative and critical mode of reading, one can turn the seemingly Western-centric project of Shijie Wenxue into a useful archive for readers with a special interest in “Eastern literature.”