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Writing for the wor(l)ds: the reflection on language in Yiyun Li’s literary production

  • Martina Renata Prosperi

Yiyun Li, b. 1972, moved from Beijing to the US in 1996, where she soon realized to be a talented writer. Although her early works, including the collections of short stories A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2005) and Gold Boy, Emerald Girl (2010), and the novels The Vagrants (2009) and Kinder Than Solitude (2014), still privileged Chinese settings and characters, after the publication of her memoir Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life (2017) the literary landscape depicted by Li was amplified with autobiographical anecdotes and reflections on literature, human relations and language. Building upon psychoanalytical hints, this article offers a close reading of Where Reasons End (2019) and Must I Go (2020), reflecting on Li’s literature from a global perspective, and arguing that her contribution to world literature lies in her bold dissociation from any conventional, crystallized and thus imprisoning use of language.

  • Keywords:
  • Yiyun Li,
  • World Literature,
  • Sinophone Studies,
  • Exophony,
  • Jacques Lacan,
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Martina Renata Prosperi

Roma Tre University, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0001-9512-7642

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  • Anno di pubblicazione: 2023
  • Pagine: 159-174

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  • Anno di pubblicazione: 2023

Informazioni sul capitolo

Titolo del capitolo

Writing for the wor(l)ds: the reflection on language in Yiyun Li’s literary production

Autori

Martina Renata Prosperi

Lingua

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0068-4.14

Opera sottoposta a peer review

Anno di pubblicazione

2023

Copyright

© 2023 Author(s)

Licenza d'uso

CC BY 4.0

Licenza dei metadati

CC0 1.0

Informazioni bibliografiche

Titolo del libro

Words and visions around/about Chinese transnational mobilities 流动

Curatori

Valentina Pedone, Miriam Castorina

Opera sottoposta a peer review

Numero di pagine

204

Anno di pubblicazione

2023

Copyright

© 2023 Author(s)

Licenza d'uso

CC BY 4.0

Licenza dei metadati

CC0 1.0

Editore

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0068-4

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0067-7

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979-12-215-0068-4

eISBN (epub)

979-12-215-0069-1

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Studi e saggi

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2704-6478

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2704-5919

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