Literary Information in China: A History

Information has become a core concept across disciplines, but it is often seen as a unique feature of the Western world. This book explores China's textual tradition to show the significance of information for reconceptualizing literary history, tracing the organization of literary information across three millennia and reimagining it as information processing. It identifies three scales of information management and surveys the forms that operate at each level, such as dictionaries, anthologies, and libraries.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 672 pages
\n Publication date: 11 May 2021
\n Publisher: Columbia University Press
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Information has emerged as a fundamental concept across various disciplines, yet it is often perceived as a distinct characteristic of the Western world, gaining prominence only in the digital age. In this book, esteemed experts delve into China's textual tradition to underscore the profound significance of information in reimagining the field of literary history. Contributors trace the evolution of literary information management across China's three millennia, exploring the diverse forms and practices that have shaped the organization of textual production. They reimagine literary history as an information processing endeavor, highlighting the various storage, encoding, sorting, and transmission mechanisms that constitute and contribute to China's rich and ever-expanding cultural heritage. The volume features cutting-edge essays on all major aspects of literary information management, encompassing graphs, internet literature, commentaries, literary museums, and archives. By shifting the focus from individual works and their authors to the informatic schemata of literature, the book identifies three distinct scales of information management: the word, the document, and the collection. It surveys the various forms that operate at each level, such as dictionaries, anthologies, and libraries. Literary Information in China is a groundbreaking work that offers a comprehensive and pioneering reevaluation of literary history, with far-reaching implications that transcend the confines of the Chinese context. It demonstrates how informatic practices intricately mold literary traditions, shedding light on the intricate interplay between language, literature, and technology. This book is a valuable resource for scholars, researchers, and enthusiasts alike, as it provides a new perspective on the historical development and cultural significance of information in the world of literature.

\n Weight: 1096g\n
Dimension: 168 x 242 x 46 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780231195522\n \n