"Comparative literature is not just an academic specialization - it contributes to the creation of the vernacular or national literatures to which it is often opposed. Gang Zhou's history of persons, influences and polemics surrounding the emergence of modern Chinese literature shows the process at work, in all its unpredictable detail." - Haun Saussy, Bird White Housum Professor of Comparative ... Read moreLiterature, Yale University "Zhou's study is the best way to enter the origin of modern Chinese language and literature in our global world. It offers a refreshing view from the outside, i.e. from world literature coupled with a rich knowledge of many of the vernacular movements in different geopolitical contexts." - Wolfgang Kubin, Professor of Chinese Language and History, University of Bonn "Placing the Modern Chinese Vernacular in Transnational Literature is the most important study of the rise of the Chinese vernacular language as a literary language yet written in English. Inherently comparative, with side-glances and examples from the wide range of other vernaculars and their rehabilitation from Dante to the age of nationalism, the book is a subtle and critical analysis of what drove some writers to the 'new' literary language, what deterred others, and what problems each group faced. A new voice in American comparative literature in her most impressive critical debut." - Sander L. Gilman, Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences, Emory University Show Less