Trends in Arabic Literature and Literary Studies: Perspectives from Chinese Scholarship
Wanying Yang/Peking University
This talk explores modern and contemporary Arabic literature alongside recent trends in Arabic literary studies from the perspective of Chinese scholarship. It highlights how writers across the Arab world engage with historical trauma, present-day social challenges, and imagined futures while probing tensions surrounding gender, religion, and politics. The talk also examines formal innovations in contemporary Arabic writing, including fragmented narration, metafiction, and magical realism, through which authors continue to expand the aesthetic and conceptual boundaries of world literature.
Additionally, the presentation surveys the growing diversity of Arabic literary scholarship in China. Topics range from studies of major literary prizes and cultural production to theoretical approaches such as diaspora studies and ecocriticism, as well as ongoing engagement with classical and canonical texts, including The Thousand and One Nights and the works of Naguib Mahfouz. Together, these strands provide a comprehensive view of the evolving landscape of Arabic literary studies in China.
Wanying Yang is an Arabic literature scholar at Peking University, specializing in modern and contemporary Arabic literature and sociocultural studies. She holds both an MA and a BA in Arabic Language and Literature from Beijing Foreign Studies University and has received multiple national awards for her academic excellence, research, and translation. Her work explores Arabic literature through comparative, theoretical, and cross-cultural lenses, with publications on authors such as Naguib Mahfouz and Mikhail Naimy, as well as contemporary Arab literary trends. She is an award-winning Chinese–Arabic translator and an active participant in national and international academic conferences on world and Arabic literature.
Asia focus, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies